Mirage: Escape from Nomanisan
by CapitaineCartoon
Summary: NOW COMPLETE! Mirage has set the Incredibles free. She is stranded on the island of Nomanisan as Syndrome has died. Read on to discover who she truly is, and follow her in her fight for survival as she battles a nasty villain. Rated T.
1. INHERITANCE

**MIRAGE: ESCAPE FROM NOMANISAN by CapitaineCartoon**

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** **Chapter eight is up! REDEMPTION**

**The story is now complete. You will find complete author's notes and thanks in the last chapter, after the story.**

**SUMMARY:** Syndrome is dead, leaving Mirage in control of Nomanisan. In possession of a deadly secret she must flee the island. Someone is determined to stop her.

**RATING:** This story is rated T (the old PG-13) for dark realistic violence, mild language and suggested sexuality.

**DISCLAIMER:** Pixar and Disney own Mirage and the Incredibles (sigh)... This is fan fiction to share on the World Wide Web for the purpose of expressing non-profit creativity. Please don't sue me.

**MIRAGE: ESCAPE FROM NOMANISAN**

**CHAPTER ONE: INHERITANCE**

The rocket made a deafening roar as it lifted off launch pad number two. The powerful engines expelled tons of burning gasses, making tremors that resonated throughout the whole compound. In the control room an empty glass vibrated, slowly creeping toward the edge of a mapping table. Mirage watched it crash to the floor, but didn't flinch when the sound reached her ears. It was like a slow motion dream, everything in a haze where time seemed to have stopped, memories frozen, and suddenly without warning emotions unraveling like a flood at the sound of crystal breaking.

_They're gone. I wonder how long it will take before Syndrome realizes that I set them free?_ she said to herself.

She was still under the shock of what she had done, helping the family fly away in the backup rocket, sending them directly to freedom, and to foil Syndrome's plan... She was in shock, not because that good deed would not go unnoticed by Syndrome or the government agencies tracking him, but by the fact her cover had been blown prematurely by anybody who did the math on who freed the Incredibles. It was a good feeling, though. It was satisfying, like the feeling you get when loose ends are tied, or when you cross a finish line in a marathon.

_I don't have much time,_ she thought.

She left the control room, taking the elevator to the first floor of Syndrome's living quarters. The large apartment was empty and quiet, only the soothing sound of geothermal turbines humming somewhere in the lower understructure filling the silence. The large volcanic rock walls were tall and smooth, paintings of modern masters carefully positioned upon them. Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' was Mirage's favorite, the women in the frame looking so carefree, dancing in an endless loop... After climbing the spiral staircase, she walked slowly towards the panoramic window that made the south wall. The large room, inundated with sunlight, was sparsely furnished with exquisite furniture from different eras of the twentieth century. Syndrome, as oblivious he was to many things, had always been sensitive to form and function.

Slipping into a leather and chrome lounge chair tucked in the corner, she looked up to see the slowly dissolving trail left by the rocket. Her green eyes focused on infinity.

_I can't erase the log files; they'll see that I was the one who punched in the authorization for liftoff. Can't even bluff my way out this, can't call out to get some help... I didn't have many friends here before, but with Syndrome away, I have none. Not that he was one anyway... _She frowned. _He never did trust me completely. He kept some administrator privileges to himself, even though as much as I tried to get them, I only got this far..._

She felt her stomach squeeze as she tried to organize the task at hand.

Saunders frowned as he looked at the computer screen. _Wonder why she launched the rocket? _He leaned forward. _Wait a minute..._ Going back to systems status check, he noticed cell block 13 had been emptied of its contents, its super-human contents... On the surveillance wall video, one of the screens showed a group of his men piled up on one another, slowly stirring back into consciousness. He reached for the general alarm, but paused as his index finger touched the large button.

_Did she set them free? She obviously couldn't handle what the boss wanted to do with the supers,_ he thought. It made sense to him that she didn't want to go that far. _But, why? She hadn't been with Syndrome for long... Actually, she came in for the last operation, from god knows where, every single background check coming up empty._ Saunders kept thinking. _The boss was obviously happy to have her on the island, seeming a little bit blind to the fact that she could be a security breach._ He mused on. _But she was, after all, the only woman around and by the way she looked no need for anyone else... Syndrome was possessive, with good reason. He marked his territory by plainly announcing that he'd kill anyone who'd touched her._

Saunders was annoyed with that idea.

_Doesn't add up,_ he said to himself. _The white haired angel has to know more than she lets on. I should have a talk with her... _

A wave of excitement rushed through him at that thought. She had always avoided him in the past, never engaging in anything beyond what was just operational babble. She barely looked at him when they spoke. That crushed him, but at the same time he couldn't help savor the way she couldn't hide her unease in his presence. She despised him and he knew it, but the pain he felt was mixed with the pleasure of stalking a prey. She would eventually give in.

_Just a question of time,_ he said to himself.

_The boss had never been away like that before. _He didn't know what to think of that. He removed his finger from the alarm button. Taking a deep breath, he turned on his heels and slowly headed out of the control room.

Mid afternoon had passed long ago, the sun starting to set on the horizon. Mirage didn't know how long she had been in the chair looking out. She didn't hear the elevator door opening downstairs in the art room but heard the familiar footsteps, a sound that made her increasingly uncomfortable as it grew louder. She hesitated. Should she get up and wait for the Captain defiantly or go on staring outside, has if nothing happened? She chose the latter, bluffing being a habit of survival.

Saunders reached the top of the stairs puffing, his face red. He was sweating more than usual. He stood there, trying to control his breathing to hide the fact that climbing stairs was more strenuous that he wanted to show.

He saw her a few meters away resting on the lounge chair. Saunders couldn't speak. He had always been dumbstruck by her beauty, ever since the day he first laid eyes on her. Looking on, he could only feel a heart wrenching wave of despair, knowing she'd never be his, forever out of his reach. He wanted to scream out and defy the unyielding force of the universe that opposed him, to make it bend to his desire to change the fact that they weren't to be. But he never did.

He only could wish time had frozen to keep the image he saw...

Mirage's long slender legs were gracefully crossed on the soft leather. The warm sun shining inside enveloped her smooth olive skin in a soft glow; the light rays absorbed and diffused like an inner source. She delicately held a cup of tea, absentmindedly looking to the horizon. Her hair, fine and the color of snow, curved gently on her shoulder as she leaned on her side. It revealed her aquiline profile, flowing like an Egyptian queen of long ago.

No, Saunders had never seen such a beautiful woman before, and knew he would probably never again.

She turned slowly to the Captain, her rich lips in a tired smile, almond eyes closing slightly. Only the sound of her silk skirt stirred the air.

"Hello, Captain Saunders," she said softly. "What is the purpose of your visit?"

Mirage saw that the short fat man in front of her was obviously fighting for his breath and composure. He was repulsive, she thought. She was irritated at the fact that he always tried to impress her with his position within the hierarchy of the island, worried at the leering glances he gave her when he had the opportunity. The way he always had a hand on his holstered colt 45 was especially alarming... She was experienced with guns since it was part of the mandatory training at the farm. She was weary of the damage a dum-dum bullet could do to human flesh. Saunders tampered with his ammunition to give it that little edge, where simply filing a cross pattern in the lead bullet would make it shatter on impact leaving a gaping hole in the unfortunate target. Such practice was banned by the Geneva Convention for good reason.

"Miss Mirage?" finally, the Captain said. "The backup rocket was launched about an hour ago." He paused.

"It seems you entered the authorization codes for launching, Miss Mirage..." Mirage sat upright on the chair. She knew that it would come to that; she just needed to buy time.

"I'm a little bit confused," the Captain went on. "Didn't Mister Syndrome schedule a launch three weeks from now? The trajectory is also the same as the first one... I'm not in the know concerning all of Mister Syndrome's ideas, but, is everything going according to plan?" He would not mention the empty cell block and his guards being knocked out.

Mirage stared at him. "Why, thank you Captain for your concern with the mission... Yes it's true; Syndrome and I made last minute changes to the program. I suggested to him that adding the second rocket a while later would create a much more dramatic effect on his little 'mise en scene'. We simply didn't have enough time to program the entire sequence, so I had to do it manually. Does this satisfy your curiosity Captain? Have you contacted Syndrome?"

Saunders fidgeted. "No Ma'am, we seem to have abruptly lost contact with him over the city's suburb... We are still trying on every stealth frequency". Mirage held her breath.

_Had they managed to take Syndrome down? _She wondered. _Was he simply covering up his tracks by making dead air? What about the city and the Incredibles? _ She thought, staring at Saunders.

_Did he know I set them free? If he doesn't he'll soon find out. I don't have much time..._

She turned to hide her unease. "Captain Saunders," she said getting up, "I'm going to the communications room to monitor the situation. Thank you for your information." She walked towards him. She tried to sense if he knew about the Incredibles. The answer came fast.

"It seems that the group of Supers we captured earlier has managed to escape. Their whereabouts are for the moment unknown. The units are scouring the island."

Saunders was staring at her, trying to read her. Mirage feigned surprise and anger.

"Captain, you better make sure you find them and bring them back before Syndrome returns. He wouldn't be pleased with your performance and might be tempted to terminate your contract with the organization. I'm sure you'd find that regrettable, Captain." She glared at him. She moved closer. Being taller than he was she towered over him. "Please report to me every fifteen minutes. You're dismissed Captain," she said dryly.

Saunders felt his blood pressure rise as he lowered his eyes. "Yes, Miss Mirage." He turned and disappeared down the stairs.

_This is getting worse and worse... _Mirage thought. She walked to the elevator. _I must get a better picture of the situation, I can't do much now. _

The elevator opened outside onto a waiting platform. In front of it, a thin rail led into the jungle. After a few seconds an egg shaped transport pod came gliding in, humming softly to a halt.

"Pod, communications room," Mirage said to the on board computer as she got in. As she lay back in her seat, her mind raced with what she just heard from the Captain. She took a deep breath.

"Pod, stop!" she ordered. The module halted. "Pod, central computer room." Gently, the egg-shaped unit spun on itself, and accelerated in the other direction. The pod eased to a halt besides another small entry platform. Mirage stepped out, and walked quietly towards volcanic rock doors. They opened silently. She walked in glancing left and right. The large room was empty, a long dining table still having not been cleared up. _Syndrome ate here before leaving,_ she thought. Her steps were resonating as she went towards the molten lava wall.

"This is Mirage, authorization Alpha-One thirty-four thirty-two..." As the words came out of her mouth, a rumbling sound filled the entire room. The lava wall separated in two, like the red curtains of a theater slowly drawn, waving gently.

She started walking on the narrow path revealed. As she stepped forward, the lava wall glided back to a close behind her. The darkness that engulfed her, except for a faint glow coming from far away below on either side, was pushed back by the pathway lights. Anyone who strayed outside this safe passage would fall for what would seem an eternity into the lava simmering somewhere on the bottom.

Mirage reached the end of the platform where a computer console lay quiet. She sat at the controls, which immediately sprung to life as sensors recognized her identity. Passwords were just an option, available only for lesser operatives on the island. A privilege Syndrome had given her at a high cost, she said to herself, frowning. Very high.

_The bastard,_ she shivered, focusing again on the task at hand.

She took time to reflect on when to take the next step of her endeavor, but the timing had to be right, and she had to make sure of the actual situation.

_We've been cut off for a while on our own transmission frequencies,_ she thought. _But sometimes there are easier ways to get the information you're looking for..._ She typed a few commands, and the giant screen lit up to reveal the local Metroville news. _Syndrome is attention hungry, his little stunt was bound to get some air time... _She leaned back in the chair to listen to the newscast.

Saunders almost choked on his cigarette as he got closer to the small television screen. The television coverage had been mainly focusing on a giant robot destroying the city's downtown... The area being cordoned off, information was limited. It seemed that the robot had been taken care of by what appeared to be a group of Supers. But even then, no official word on the exact situation.

What made Saunders gasp was the breakaway news that a small plane had disintegrated above the city's suburbs some time after the robot ceased its activity. The screen showed the burning wreckage of a familiar design. Rescue crews were talking about at least one casualty, body parts recovered matching to video footage of a mysterious man who had earlier identified himself as Syndrome and who, for a brief moment, had battled with the large robot before disappearing.

Saunders put out his cigarette, when he saw a group of people talking about escaping narrow death, as their house was destroyed by the falling plane. Their faces looked familiar and even though they had already donned civilian clothes, he recognized Mr. Incredible and his family. He stared blankly at the screen, when a voice on the main PA system pulled him back to reality.

"Attention all personnel, this is Mirage speaking... There has been a change of plans. It seems Mr. Syndrome will not be coming back. Therefore, I'm informing everyone that I've taken over management of the island. That is all."


	2. REVOLUTION

**CHAPTER TWO: REVOLUTION**

Mirage sighed as she let go of the intercom button. _Wonder how that one will be taken? It's time to pack my bags now... _

She reached behind her neck to unclasp a thin and delicate platinum chain to which was attached a small disk engraved with Mayan hieroglyphs. She popped out the jade stone that made the center of the pendant, and then inserted the disk in one of the computer drives. _It's true, jewelry can be a good friend,_ she thought, looking behind her.

She was about to start the data download when Saunders appeared on the main video screen, staring at her.

"Miss Mirage?" He looked visibly not satisfied of what he just heard on the intercom. "I think you have to come to central control, there are a few technicalities we have to talk about."

Mirage looked up slowly at the screen.

"Captain, in as much as I know we have pressing matters to discuss, this change of situation urges me to go to the continent and communicate with our associates. So please have the Manta-Plane fuelled up and ready for immediate departure." Mirage leaned forward. "I'll be flying this one myself. In my absence Captain, you have full command. I'll be returning in two days." The giant video screen flickered and faded to black as Mirage saw Saunders's face tense up and frown.

Mirage felt a wave of anxiety rush over her. The satellite download wouldn't be available for fifteen minutes. That was still too long for her to wait, she couldn't bear it. She reassembled the pendant and walked back to the lava doors.

Saunders looked at the plane being fuelled up below in the hangar. The maintenance crew had just finished removing the ground equipment when he saw the pod carrying Mirage stop a few meters away from the craft.

_Not even carrying luggage, _he said to himself. Mirage walked with a brisk pace, straight to the ladder. As she got in, the door closed silently behind her. She slid into the Captain's seat, reaching for the familiar controls. The small black jet vibrated as the engines came to life.

The landing strip of the hangar was rather short compared to international airport standards. This meant for a hasty liftoff, full throttle. An inexperienced pilot could end up plummeting in the valley below.

"Liftoff granted." As soon as she heard the words on the radio, Mirage pushed the throttle simultaneously releasing the brakes. Blood rushed through her veins as she saw the opening of the hangar looming towards her. Relieved, she was already planning the debriefing of the mission, but a thought of despair crossed her mind.

She needed that data. She had to go back. She was afraid, she was risking her life. But that was part of the deal. It was more important than her anyway... The crucial data inflow was still five minutes ahead now.

She would have to be strong. She glanced at the controls.

The plane was already a few meters off the ground, but that didn't matter. Mirage slammed the throttle backward, the engines almost dying to a stop. The plane lost all lift and came bouncing back on the concrete surface. She pushed open the air brakes. The small craft started to slide sideways towards the end of the runway, towards a lethal fall to the jungle below.

The plane still hadn't stopped and the runway was getting to short for comfort. Mirage thought for what seemed seconds at what decision to take. She reversed the engine thrust, pushed the throttle to maximum. The engines roared as the plane grinded to a stop, only a few meters from the edge. She shut them down immediately. The Manta-plane shivered into silence.

"Tower, this is Alpha-One. Takeoff aborted. Have your crew ready for a turnaround, over."

Saunders had witnessed the whole chain of events without budging. But as he saw the aircraft lying askew near the edge of the runway, his mind snapped into alertness.

_She forgot something, obviously. Something important, _he thought. He looked at his watch. _It's downloading time soon..._ He saw her step into a waiting transport pod, which turned around and sped towards the exit. _I don't like this,_ he frowned. He tracked the pod's direction to the central computer room.

Mirage's heart was pounding when she reached the lava wall.

"This is Mirage, authorization Alpha-One thirty-four thirty-two." The wall rumbled as it opened slowly. She had the disk ready as she reached the terminal. She slipped it into the drive and waited for the screen to present the proper menu. Her blood froze as she saw the screen.

DOWNLOAD DENIED.

The voice recognition protocol had already identified her properly. She tried again. "This is Mirage, authorization Alpha-One thirty-four thirty-two..."

"Hello Mirage." She gasped, turning to the familiar voice that came from the entrance of the platform. Saunders was there, walking slowly in her direction. "I took the liberty of changing your access privileges... Your quick departure made me realize there were too many stones left unturned. You've been fiddling a lot with the database since Syndrome left the island.

Mirage stared at him. "You were spying on me, Captain?" she said, coolly.

"Oh no, not spying, not really..." Saunders replied. "Just making sure my investments were well taken care of. Mr. Syndrome, as you probably know, is paying me handsomely for my collaboration. I just wanted some assurance his part of the deal would still be honored."

Mirage found it ironic that the man in front of her could speak of honor. A couple of years ago he only was a local hit-man with nothing more than ambition to get out of the hole he was stuck in. Syndrome had been the perfect opportunity and with the type of men that made the island's garrison, well, one could say he was home now.

"Mr. Syndrome was a very rich man. He had a lot of friends and associates who prefer to remain anonymous for the time being. But besides all this, I think it is a question of time before his little operation is frozen to an end..."

Saunders stepped slowly forward. "This is where you come in Mirage. Don't mind the familiarity, do you?" Saunders sounded nervous. "I think you are at the present the best person to tell me how I can get my fair share of his money. Being intimate with Syndrome as you were, I'm sure he told you many secrets." Saunders was close to Mirage now. "I can understand the man's passion for you, Mirage." His tone of voice suddenly lowered. "I can understand this, for I'm a man of passion too."

She was slowly backing up as he was getting closer. She felt her body tense up as she bumped back into the computer console. She poised herself, took a quiet breath, bringing back the cool professional she could be.

"You have no business here, Captain Saunders..."

He laughed quietly. "Oh but yes, I do. Syndrome owed me a lot more than my mere pay. My allegiance to him came at a very high price."

Mirage tried to hide the tension in her voice. "There is nothing for you here, Captain, nothing," she said, lying.

Suddenly, Saunders was on her. He pinned her against the computer console, his forearm against her neck.

"Oh, but there is something here. I know about your little investments in Swiss banks," he said through his teeth. "I don't know how you did it, but I think you managed to divert substantial funds from Syndrome's fortune for your own use."

Mirage tried to bluff. "That's a lie. I never had access to that type of information. I couldn't ever," she gasped, trembling.

Saunders let out a grunt as he pulled his forty-five from his holster. He put the muzzle of the large weapon underneath her chin. She was pushed hard against the angled console, feeling the control buttons stabbing at her back, the cold metal of the gun pressing against her throat.

"Give me the access codes to the accounts," Saunders barked, trembling. He then noticed the pendant she still held. "What's this?" He said, ripping it out her hand. He brought it up to her face. "Syndrome was good to you, wasn't he? Or is there more to this than meets the eye?" As Saunders took a closer look, a smile of satisfaction crossed his face. "Oh I think so, Mirage."

She tried to release herself, but he was too strong for her. He was leaning on her now, with all his weight. His free hand started playing with her hair, feeling its soft texture between his fingers. Saunders was twitching, his mouth inches away from hers.

"You're so beautiful, Mirage. We should be good friends..."

He put his hand on her thigh, slowly sliding it towards the base of her skirt. He could feel his fingers tingle as he touched her skin. He began to push up the fabric.

"Time to know each other better Mirage," he said, coolly.

Mirage screamed. Twisting her body with all her might, she managed to slide downward and away from the gun. Falling hard on the floor, she was freed from Saunders's grasp. Without thinking, she reached forward in a flash and grabbed his groin, squeezing as much as she could, and twisting with all her strength. Saunders stumbled backward as he howled in pain, shocked, instinctively wanting to protect himself. She got up as he was aiming his gun at her, still lying on his back, pushing himself away to get a clear shot. As she grabbed his arm and pushed it outward, the first shot thundered inches away from her ear. Gasping in terror, she kicked him. Her foot felt the crunching of his genitals. Saunders cried out, dropping his gun, blinded by the pain. Mirage tried to pick it up as she pushed herself away from him, but Saunders had managed to take it back.

She grabbed the disk that had fallen to the floor and dashed towards the lava wall. It was opening too slowly, not fast enough to let her out yet. Mirage felt the few seconds she stood there were endless. She spun around as she heard Saunders cock the weapon. The Captain had waited for that moment, where he had her where he wanted. She was like a simple cardboard target at the end of a field.

He paused a second, then his eyes gleamed as he pulled the trigger.


	3. SMOKE AND MIRRORS

**CHAPTER THREE: SMOKE AND MIRRORS**

She had been different all her life, she knew it, clearly. She was conscious of this as someone could remember a dark secret, an unsettling emotion that comes forward unexpectedly, like a recurring vivid dream. She didn't understand as a child how she had managed to get away from the snarling dog in the alley behind her house as she was playing with her friends. She remembered the nausea and the strange jerking sensation one could feel if accelerated and stopped suddenly, like jumping, only to regain her balance blocks away from where she was.

She remembered her mother telling to never use the gifts that were given to her. If she ever did, the whole family would suffer. It was a dark time for Supers, her mother told her that day. It was the only time in her life she would hear her mother use that word. She remembered hiding in the attic of the family home trying to develop her skill, but she never managed it but only under the grip of the deepest, most primitive fear. The transmutational process was very unsettling for her.

The fact that she couldn't control her power or that the only time it manifested itself being under extreme terror, made her begin to be afraid of fear itself. Mirage learned to hold back every emotion she felt was too strong, measuring everything, pondering. Her power was simply too traumatizing for her to try to control.

Even though Transmutation terrified her, Mirage wasn't afraid of much else though, certainly not of the dark. As the lights closed in her bedroom, the shapes in the surrounding darkness began to glow with familiar warmth, the whole room illuminated from within, everything like broad daylight. She took pleasure in shutting out this inner light in the blink of an eye if she wanted to. After all, sleep was necessary.

She trained hard to blend into the background, as she was taught that being different would always be a mortal sin. To survive meant disappearing. She could never afford to be exposed. Supers, as communists could have been in another era, had been branded a threat to the common good. She never had any other option.

As she tried to lead a normal life, she followed the beaten path. She majored in computer science and had started a master in business relations. Mirage was nineteen, when approached one day by someone claiming to be part of the Supers Relocation Program, a government incentive designed to protect at first glance the public who had grown disenchanted with the Supers.

How they knew about her abilities was a mystery. She didn't know how they had tracked her down, but the fact that they did had made it clear they would not let her be, her precious gifts too important.

They told her she would never have a normal life, but if she did what she was told, some form of freedom would be there for her. The program had been using Supers for their own hidden agenda, Black Ops, never to be revealed to the public. Mirage had been selected for her facility to be involved in certain types of deep undercover operations. Her powers matched her charms, and with those weapons, she was able to fool anyone in letting their guard down.

They told her the missions would be dangerous, that they wouldn't ever acknowledge her existence or their participation if she got caught. They didn't tell her that she would have to come close, closer that she'd normally ever be, to some of the most repulsive criminals. She would be scarred for life for doing so. Sometimes when alone, she cried, cursing the gift and the existence that was hers, like someone would curse cancer. She'd always pick herself up though... She'd always follow through.

Saunders thought he had a hallucination as he fired the gun. He had seen Mirage standing at the lava door staring at him like a deer startled by headlights. He had been sure he aimed properly as he fired the shot, but then logic did not seem to work anymore.

Standing a few feet apart, he saw that there were two Mirages, both staring at him, both waiting for the lava door to open. He clearly saw the shot reaching its intended target, but wasn't sure if he did see it go through her, for she stood there unflinching, to then dissolve slowly in a fine mist. As the doors finally opened, he aimed his weapon at the other one. He saw her tense up, fear in her eyes, and then disappear, her body evaporating like a cloud stretched by the wind.

Saunders ran to the pod platform. He saw it carrying her towards the aircraft hangar. How she could have moved this fast, Saunders couldn't understand. He had to stop her though, the disk she had taken with her probably very valuable. He rushed to the intercom near the door.

"Attention, this is the Captain. We have a security breach, code twelve, heading for hangar A. Secure area, arrest culprit, and take her to containment unit two."

As she was speeding towards the landing strip, Mirage heard everything over the pod's speaker. She looked onward to see a group a guards taking position on the arrival platform, machine guns drawn.

"Pod, stop!" she yelled. The transport halted, fifty meters away from the platform. As she looked back, she saw Saunders speeding towards her in another pod. A shot blasted through the roof, violently shaking the transport. The guards had reached the end of the platform. Mirage looked at the ground below, a few meters away through the trees, but still a neck breaking fall.

She jumped.

She closed her eyes while falling through the brush, grabbing at what she could to stop her fall, bouncing about like a pinball on bumpers. She caught a large branch as she came through the underbrush, which bent before snapping suddenly to drop her unceremoniously to ground, flat on her back, pushing the air out of her lungs. She didn't know if she had passed out as all went black. But how long didn't matter. She got up, decided the soft soil wasn't appropriate for high heels so swiftly discarded them.

The darkness of the jungle disappeared quickly as she got used to her surroundings. Getting her bearings, she could see a hundred meters away the opening leading to the runway. The manta-plane was there, ready for takeoff. She started running.

As she reached the concrete runway, she saw that some of the guards still hadn't moved from their position on the platform, guiding another group underneath the trees, the hounds tugging on their leashes. She had about a minute to reach the plane.

It felt like an eternity had passed as she dashed across the tarmac, totally in the open. She ran around the airplane to the cockpit door and pulled on the unlocking mechanism.

The door was locked.

Mirage's head started to spin... She looked behind the plane to see that the entire security force was converging towards her. A familiar nausea, like a fearful twisting of her stomach overtook her. A shiver went through her body and silently a few meters away, a faint haze formed. It solidified to become a perfect image of her. Instantaneously, she realized she had become the image while the illusion had taken her place besides the plane. She turned around, concentrating her thoughts. She then started leaping through herself, hopping quickly towards the end of the open hangar. In a few jumps she had reached the end of the runway, looking down from the edge. Through the trees, a waterfall pooled somewhere below.

She heard the guards cocking their weapons behind her. They would be upon her any second now. Turning to face them, she took a deep breath, stood on the edge and let herself fall backward through the trees.

The guards reached the edge. They looked to see a body floating face down, slowly sinking, dissolving into the darkness of the water. One of them flipped open his wrist radio.

"Captain, this is team One. Target has jumped the edge into the jungle, and seems terminated. We're sending a team to retrieve the body."

He paused, looking at the other team members. They stared back, silently.

"Sir, we have to report it appears she was a Super..."


	4. THE ART AND THE CRAFT

**CHAPTER FOUR: THE ART AND THE CRAFT**

Mirage plunged head first in the murky waters. The shock, similar to hitting a brick wall, almost knocked her out. Disoriented for a few seconds, not knowing where the surface was, she struggled in the dark, trying to gain a grip on anything that would tell her where she could be. She eventually touched the bottom, soft with mud and algae floating about. The plants, viscous and cold, enveloped her like the icy fingers of a dead hand. As she kicked frantically to try to get back to the surface, the muddy bottom just stirred, and the plants, like tentacles, wrapped themselves around her. Terror started to fill her mind.

Then through the mud, she saw the surface a meter away. Instead of reaching out instinctively to inhale precious air, she held herself back.

Mastering her emotions, she focused on the near surface and projected an Avatar. The image created lay motionless, floating like a ghost beneath the surface.

Mirage started swimming away from her copy.

As her head breached the surface, she managed to remain quiet taking her first breath. Looking behind and up, she saw the guards staring into the water below, pointing at her inert image. Inhaling quietly, she went underwater again, to swim farther away to a patch of water lily shaded by the trees.

Struggling through mud, she slithered silently out of the water, fighting not to slip back. As soon as she touched dry land, she got up to throw herself forward to crouch behind the nearest palm tree.

Mirage turned to look, and saw her double illuminated by the flashlights of the men higher up. Backing away slowly, staring at herself, she tried to keep the image from disappearing before she had reached the deep jungle.

Mirage was ten meters away, when her image dissolved into nothingness, even though she tried to keep it from vanishing. It was a futile attempt, for she knew she couldn't be further away than a certain point before losing control of what she had created. She tried again, but failed. There was no time for frustration.

Letting go of the image, Mirage turned and dashed into the now dark jungle.

The adrenalin flowing through her veins kept her going through the brush. Running as fast as she could, she could barely feel the pain coming from her bare feet as they were cut open from sharp rocks. The jungle was lashing at her as she ran, scratching and bruising her skin, branches and prickly shrubs like whips on her arms and face.

Coming suddenly upon a steep drop, Mirage couldn't stop in time. Losing her balance, she tumbled down to the bottom, a few meters below.

Bloodied and still dizzy from the fall, she managed to get up and move forward. Getting away was her only concern, knowing that if they didn't find a body, they would resume the hunt.

The fear she felt made her become totally aware of her surroundings; her senses were in high alert, keeping an ear and an eye for any sound or anything that moved. She wasn't even conscious that the darkness didn't matter. For her, the forest was lit by what could have been floodlights, leaving nothing to hide.

Anything sounding or looking remotely human would make her duck for cover.

Mirage rushed forward. Not knowing what direction she was taking didn't matter. Moving from harm's way was her only goal.

Coming upon a small clearing, Mirage looked up to see the large volcano that dominated the island. On its flanks, the compound was spread about like mushrooms growing on a tree. Had long had she run, she couldn't tell, but she could judge the distance crossed by eyeing the structures visible in the distance.

She realized she couldn't travel fast in the dense vegetation, and that, in a way, was reassuring; her pursuers would be struggling too.

Hope came upon her, for she now knew where she was.

In an instant, she decided where to go…

After running a few strides, she stopped abruptly. Grabbing the bottom part of her damaged skirt, she tore the fabric upward a few centimeters to remove a strip of excess silk. In a different situation, Mirage could have liked a mini skirt.

Mirage knew her steps led to the river…

The Temple would be her destination... It would only be a temporary haven though. She would have to move on, as she was still far away from safety.

Mirage was exhausted, running for what seemed hours in the dense jungle. Her legs were numb, but she felt her body burning from the ordeal of rushing forward through the brush. She was starting to be scared now, as she expected the river to be within reach.

But she still couldn't hear it.

Wondering if she hadn't run in circles, she started imagining what would happen if she'd been found. Forcing herself not to panic, she ran faster, almost blindly, pushing herself.

Her body had reached its limits. Stopping to take her breath, leaning against a tree, she heard above the pounding sound of the blood in her veins a reassuring, faint, rumbling sound.

She had reached the river.

She was just a few meters away from the water now. Feeling relief as she heard the water flowing somewhere in front of her, she ran again. Hope came back as she felt the sound of the water growing stronger.

Passing a tree with a very low branch, Mirage heard a voice that made her blood freeze.

"_IDENTIFICATION, PLEASE_."

Mirage had crossed the path of a Spy Parrot, one of Syndrome's lesser toys, spread randomly on the island. She immediately stood still, knowing these robots had limited visual acuity and were not able to discern a slow moving object. The thought of projecting herself away through an Avatar crossed her mind, but she decided against it, knowing the robot would pick it up.

Very slowly, Mirage started backing away from the mechanical bird.

The robot repeated its command: "_IDENTIFICATION, PLEASE."_

Mirage tensed up, and looked behind her. She had been out in the open, the protection of the trees a few meters away.

Stopping again, she held her breath. The bird stared blankly in her direction, its internal scanners seemingly confused.

Mirage stared at the robot.

The bird barked its order one more time. Mirage backed up again slowly, moving as smoothly as she could, towards the edge of the woods.

Not seeing the root of a tree sticking out of the ground behind her, Mirage stumbled backwards. Trying to regain her balance, her arms flailing in the air, she fell down.

The parrot suddenly straightened up. Mirage saw its eyes focus on where she stood. It opened its beak, and unfurled its wings. A loud intense shriek, strident and anxious, like a thousand police sirens combined, came out of its beak. The robot changed color, from bright blue to crimson red.

In the compound, a watchman jumped to alertness.

"Sir, we have a visual in sector Three G Five."

Saunders looked at the screen. What he saw made him clench his fists as he ran to the intercom.

"Team One, I thought you told me you had the target terminated! She's in the jungle!"

Saunders was screaming, boiling with rage.

The guard looked puzzled.

"Sir, we are still searching the perimeter down below the tarmac, we saw her body floating. The men should find her soon."

Saunders barked at the screen: "You idiots! Stop your search and head for sector Three G Five. She's alive!"

He was shaking with anger, but also with anguish. Saunders would have preferred it if she had been dead, certain things would have been easier.

Mirage was a Super, and that scared him.

But there were also advantages of having her still alive…

"Bring her back to me, and Team One, bring her back unharmed. She's worth a lot to me. That's an order."

Saunders stared at the screen:

"Don't mess up or I'll have your head."

"Yes, Sir." The guard looked worried as the screen went blank.

Mirage covered her ears to protect them from the deafening sound the parrot made. The sound was so loud it was disorienting. Spotting a loose branch on the ground, she rushed and grabbed hold of it. Aiming at the bird, she swung as hard as she could. The branch crashed into the robot, shattering it into pieces. As it fell to the ground like a rock, springs and cogs flew everywhere.

Silence fell on the forest again.

Mirage ran toward the river ahead.

She finally reached its edge. Its waters were rough, the current fast. Mirage looked around, and saw a branch large enough to hold onto in the water. Picking it up, she carefully started wading into the river. As the water got deeper, her feet finally lost contact with the bottom. She grabbed hold of the slippery branch, but it was difficult not to go under. She hung on to it like a buoy.

The current accelerated slowly, taking her to the middle of the river.

Mirage heard a familiar rumbling sound coming from higher above. Taking a deep breath, she ducked underneath the branch, just as three velocipods came in flying above her, hovering for a moment, and then moving on towards the forest.

The current would take her to the ocean in about an hour. There, she would just have to swim briefly to the Temple.

The Temple was the nickname given to a small cottage by the ocean that Syndrome had built, a retreat from the island when everything else was too much for him. It had the advantage of being very low profile, barely equipped. He had taken Mirage there a few times. She had liked its simplicity…

The current was slowing down now. Mirage was approaching the mouth of the river. The water started smelling salty, turning slowly to a cool shade of blue. She finally floated out to the open sea. The warm tropical waters were beautiful, like dark transparent crystal in the near ending night. She let go of the branch as she felt the current taking her too far away.

About one hundred meters down the beach the cottage lay quiet, enveloped by palm trees.

Mirage didn't have the luxury of enjoying her tropical swim. In her escape attempt, her feet were cut by the rough terrain, as her body was bloodied and bruised; sharks could smell a drop of blood from miles away. She only had a couple of minutes to get out of the water.

Her heart was pumping when she reached the beach. All was quiet and empty, just the gentle wind through the trees. The beach of golden sand stretched to infinity.

The Temple was reassuring in its stillness. Syndrome had never mentioned its existence to any of the lesser personnel on the island. He took pride in having secrets of his own, it made him feel stronger, enjoying the satisfaction of deceiving everyone in such a simple way.

Mirage knew she would have about twelve hours of peace, before Island Security would eventually come around as they searched the island. Having lost her track a few kilometers up into the forest, they hadn't figured that the river was a fast and discreet way of travelling. She knew, that because of the parrot, probably all personnel had been mobilized in the sector where it had sounded the alarm.

She would have to prepare…

The small cottage, humble in comparison to the lavish architecture of the compound, was still well furnished and accessorized: complete kitchen, large bedroom overlooking the ocean. The bathroom was luxurious, delicate, covered in hand-made tiles with fine engravings. A Jacuzzi bath lay in one corner. A large shower, enclosed in unpolished glass that let daylight seep through, dominated the room.

Mirage walked slowly inside the bathroom. Her body was tired, aching, hurt. She longed for comfort. Turning the shower on, she adjusted the temperature of the water. She slowly removed what was left of her skirt, took her dark top off. As she unclasped her small silk brassiere, she massaged her aching arms. She took off her underwear and entered the shower.

The water felt good running down her body. Mirage took a bottle of shampoo, opened the cap, and enjoyed the fragrance. Her fingers ran through her hair as she massaged her scalp slowly. The pressure of her fingers, after a while, helped her forget where she was. Grabbing a sea sponge and covering it with body soap, she lathered herself absentmindedly.

Staring into nothingness, letting the sponge be the guide, she began to feel reassured.

She was far away… Far away from herself and the tropical hell she was on.

Mirage heard a faint sound coming from the outside. Grabbing a towel, she got out of the shower to listen furthermore. She looked out the window. What she had heard was a group of dolphins playing a few hundred meters off shore, in the now barely risen sun. In as much this was a false alarm, the sound brought her back to reality.

A surge of despair went over her.

She would have to go back.

Mirage looked inside the bedroom again. Everything seemed still for a moment.

Catching Mirage's attention, in one corner of the bedroom, laid a full body mirror tilted on its stand. Mirage walked to it. Staring at her reflection, she looked tired, bruised all over.

Mirage felt rage, slowly unleashing itself.

"Why me? Why… me?" She said out loud. "What have I _done_ to deserve this? Why me?"

She could have been shouting now.

The reflection in the mirror seemed to want to answer…

"Because," it said, softly.

"I'm tired," she muttered angrily. "I'm tired of this goddamn _game_. I'm tired…"

She felt defeated.

"Tired of being _me_."

"You have no _choice_," said the mirror, calmly. "You must go back and finish what you started. You will never, _never_ find peace if you don't."

Her reflection leaned closer. It whispered to her.

"Mirage Moresso… You _have_ to go back..."

"Don't call me that!" Mirage yelled at herself.

"You know who you are," the reflection said, defiantly. "You_ know_..." The image smiled.

Mirage backed away from the mirror. She felt blood rush through her veins as she made a fist and slammed it in the glass surface. Pieces shattered and fell to the ground. Her image lay multiplied and fragmented in the broken shards. Her fist was bloodied; she looked at it, but felt no pain.

Stumbling backward, Mirage slowly collapsed to the floor and started sobbing.

Elsewhere on the island, Saunders was raging. They had lost her trace.

Mirage got up. Opening a chest of drawers, she took out clothes she had left for herself. She loved to exercise outdoors, and the pristine beach was the perfect setting. She took out pale yellow Lycra and Spandex gym pants, with matching short sleeve top and sport bra, putting them on quickly. In the closet, was a pair of sturdy running shoes, light and comfortable.

Mirage then hesitated. She went to the kitchen, opened the drawers and looked at the assortment of knives available. None of them seemed appropriate. She finally put them down and walked outside the cottage.

There was a small shed a few meters away from the house. It contained an assortment of tools, and most important, complete scuba diving equipment.

Mirage found what she was looking for…

In its sheath, near the tanks and wet suit, lay a large stainless steel diving knife. The highly polished blade, serrated on one side, was heavy in her hand, but comfortable. She took the sheath and tied it around her right upper-leg.

_Let's hope I don't ever have to use it_, she thought.

Taking a small backpack, she found a full water bottle and put it in.

Mirage walked outside in the morning sun. A whole day was left, she would leave at dusk. She stopped to feel the stillness in the air. How ironic that her surroundings could be perceived as a perfect match of space and time. The sea was beautiful, gentle waves coming to the beach. The wind was perfumed with the scent of wild flowers growing about. The palm trees, shivering slightly in the wind when it picked up, made moving shadows on the ground.

Mirage stood there, but simply could not enjoy the moment. Reality soiled it, destroying its beauty.

_So be it,_ she said to herself.

As she stood there, she focused on a point in front of her. She wasn't angry anymore, nor scared. She was at peace, as much as she could be in the moment. She concentrated.

A thin silvery halo formed about ten meters away. Like coming out of a haze, Mirage's Avatar materialized in front of her. She looked at it, as it looked back at her. Instantaneously, without even thinking, Mirage was transported within her image as the image took her original place. She now looked upon where she had stood a second earlier. She then took a breath, focused, and felt projected back to where she had been.

Mirage tried again, projecting herself in her avatar back and forth, as fast as she could. She succeeded for about twenty times before collapsing into exhaustion, never being able to go beyond that point in one try.

_What strange powers I have_, she thought, frowning as she looked at the sea.

_I can't even transmutate through a wall, even less if I'm touched by anything or anyone…_

She thought of Syndrome, and cringed.

_I wish I could fly, just that… Then I could get the hell out of here…_

She felt helpless.

Mirage went back to the cottage. Sitting down on a lounge chair overlooking the ocean, she looked up to the sky. She secretly prayed that she would see daylight again.

Mirage knew where she had to go.

Waiting for night to fall, she would head for the north side of the island. She would try to reach the volcanic mountain side.

There was only one way back in.

She would have to go through the sewers…


	5. THE WELL OF SOULS

**CHAPTER FIVE: THE WELL OF SOULS**

Mirage left the Temple as soon as the sun set on the ocean. Her new clothes were comfortable; her stride had a bounce as her shoes were light, with a firm grip on the soft ground. Feeling her energy returned, her mind was racing, trying to analyse her course of action.

Walking swiftly and stealthily through the jungle, her anxiety faded as she heard only the quiet sounds of her surroundings. Darkness being her strongest ally, she felt confident she wouldn't stumble on a robot bird or any other potential threat.

If something did cross her path, she thought, it would be its problem, not hers.

The jungle was pitch-black in the moonless night. Mirage walked with ease, as someone would walk into a room; every object lit from an inner source, glowing in bright golden hues, as visible to her as in broad daylight. Being so used to this, she felt compelled to see it as some form of privilege.

If being a Super was a gift, Mirage could have debated that... It made her angry to think about her powers too much, feeling they were a curse most of the time, much more than a blessing.

But she had been down that road before; those were the things she couldn't change about herself. She had learned to stop her mind from wandering to where she knew would only be frustration.

Mirage looked down at the knife she carried. It brought memories of her training back to her mind. She remembered how hard it had been to take certain decisions, like the taking of a weapon, taking it for a kill…

Determination had meant survival many times in her life, as it would be so again.

She feared that, but walked on.

_If all goes well, I'll reach the base of the volcano just before dawn, _she thought, reassuring herself.

Saunders looked absentmindedly at his cigarette. His men had just found traces of her presence at the cottage. Saunders flinched when he saw one of the guards on the video channel hold up her torn, bloodied skirt. He couldn't help staring at the screen, fascinated by the bedroom he could see in the background. He had never been there; he had always wondered what it had looked like. He envied Syndrome when he took Mirage there.

They had found faint footprints leading back into the jungle. Saunders knew she would be returning to the compound.

_She has nowhere else to go, _Saunders thought

He was a patient man; he would just have to wait. As he looked at his cigarette burning slowly in the ashtray, he drifted away.

Mirage's face seemed to have etched itself in his memory. In his mind's eye she was staring at him, standing there, near the computer console.

In his mind, shewas walking towards him, _inviting_ him.

Saunders frowned as he came back to reality. He took the cigarette and put it out, crushing it.

The jungle ground was slowly getting steeper. Large boulders progressively covered the terrain, some of them old and covered with vegetation, others still uncovered as they had just come off the mountain side. Mirage, climbing one of them, could see above the canopy of the dark and still forest. Looking up, she let her night vision fade to see the night sky beautiful as scintillating stars filled it in the distance.

Mirage focused her attention on the lower base of the volcano, at the edge where the trees were starting to grow. About a kilometer away, lay an opening, barely visible. She took a sip from her water bottle and climbed down the rock.

It took her another hour to reach what she had seen in the distance, the ragged mountain like an obstacle course, difficult to cross.

Having reached a plateau, Mirage came upon a structure coming out of the mountain side. It was large tube of reinforced concrete, high enough for someone to stand in. Steel bars blocked its entrance, too narrowly spaced for anyone to go through.

Mirage looked inside. The tube stretched in front her to what seemed infinity. Moss covered its walls, wet with condensation from the cooler air. Water, foul smelling, flowed out towards the opening, making Mirage flinch as its strong odor reached her.

Sensors were attached to the bars. Anyone attempting to get through would surely trigger an alarm, but that didn't bother her. Not even thinking, she stepped towards the bars. Transmutating effortlessly right through them, she reappeared a few meters inside. Mirage didn't go forward immediately, turning to see the sky had turned pale pink as dawn rose. She turned back and walked into the darkness in front of her, her footsteps resonating as her feet splashed in the water.

Mirage instinctively put her hand on the sheath of her knife.

The tunnel seemed horizontal, but actually had a slight downward slope, barely perceptible to the eye. As Mirage walked, the water at her feet got progressively deeper, becoming an ooze, opaque, with debris floating about. The stench in the air became stronger.

Mirage discovered she was not alone. A rich, self-contained eco-system thrived in the moss on the wall, hosting a variety of creatures; from spiders to insects, prey to predator. Rats squeaked as they scattered, startled by her presence. They weren't afraid of her, just naturally cautious and curious. Keeping a safe distance, they regrouped behind her, to slowly follow.

Walking forward had become more strenuous, the water rising to her knees now. Mirage shivered as she felt the occasional brushing of rubbish against her exposed ankles. She suddenly stopped when she felt bitten.

A presence seemed to have attached itself to her bare skin. She couldn't see though the opaque water. Reaching down, she felt her ankle covered with small bumps. Mirage lifted it out to see it covered with leeches. Leaning her foot against the side of the tunnel, she took her knife to remove them. The worms squirmed as they were pricked with the blade. Falling off, they left small bloody bite marks. She would have to do that again later.

Mirage felt more and more oppressed as she moved forward. Something in the air had caught her attention. It wasn't the typical smell sewers had, it was something else. It had got to her immediately as she had entered the tunnel.

It was a very specific odor. The scent seemed to reach into her, deep inside, into the very confines of her heart. Mirage tried not to focus on it too much.

But she knew what it was;

There was no mistaking the smell of rotten flesh.

It was growing stronger as she moved on. It made her feel nauseous.

Mirage paused, having reached what looked like an enlargement of the tunnel. It had become a circular chamber about twenty meters wide. Black water filled it to its edge, with no sidewalks to use. On the opposite side, the tunnel went on, but on a higher level that could be reached by using a small ladder fixed into the wall. Mirage noticed daylight reached her through a small opening high up above in the distance.

Mirage walked carefully towards the ladder on the opposite side. As she was stepping in the water, the ground underneath her feet felt different.

_A lot of debris must have had accumulated in that area_, she thought.

She was stepping on brittle, slippery objects that rolled around underneath her feet, making keeping her balance difficult.

Mirage had reached the middle when she noticed that the pack of rats that had followed her was now nowhere to be seen. Impatience made her want to reach the ladder now. Fear had slowly tightened its grip on her.

Lifting her knees out of the water, she moved in haste now. She thought of transmutating to reach the ladder, but judged against it, being still too far.

Mirage had only a few meters to go when she lost her balance as something rolled under her foot.

She fell flat in the water, face first, hands out to protect herself.

A shiver of horror went through her as her hands came in contact with the soggy bottom. The water was full of debris, cold, hard and viscous. Reeling back, disgusted, she got up too fast, lost her balance again, and felt backwards. As she stirred the water, the putrid smell rising almost overwhelmed her. Forcing herself not to vomit, she stood up again.

Mirage felt her stomach contract violently as she noticed daylight piercing through the murky water had revealed what was around her.

Decaying corpses were everywhere to be seen. The whole area was filled with bodies, festering in the tropical heat, simmering.

Some of the bodies were clad in the remains of Super uniforms. Some seemed to have also been security guards as their gray uniforms stood out in contrast with the faded colors of the Supers. Saunders probably killed his own kind, perhaps to periodically purge his ranks.

Mirage had always wondered what happened to those who were defeated by Syndrome's robots. Her heart sank if she though to much about that. She would never need to speculate anymore.

Mirage screamed in terror. Trying to transmutate, she failed, unaware that more leeches had time to reattach to her. Struggling to get up, she stirred the remains around her. The bones were pushed about, some of them coming out of the water.

Mirage reached the ladder. She felt weak, barely able to lift herself up. Her grip tightened on the bars as she started to climb.

She felt suddenly grabbed by the ankle as she almost got out of the water. Something muscular had wrapped itself around her leg, squeezing it. Pain shot through her as an enormous force pulled her back down. Mirage desperately tried to hold on, but the weight pulling on her was too much. Her fingers slipped off the bars.

She fell again in the fetid soup.

Mirage fell backward in the water, barely having time to take a breath before being submerged completely. Cold liquid ran up her nose, bitter and salty, terror overtaking her.

The pressure on her leg had shifted. She now felt being wrapped in a steel coil that moved upward, in slow, relaxed pulses.

Mirage pushed her hands down. She felt the scales of the large Boa that had taken her, cold under her fingers. Her body tensed as she tried to push herself away from the animal.

Reaching up frantically, as she ran out of air, her hands eventually touched the head of the snake, finding the eyes of the beast. Not even thinking, she pressed her fingers against its eyeballs. The snake pulled its head away, relaxing its grip on her. Mirage reached out to her leg and pulled out her knife. With her free hand, she grabbed the snake's neck, and pointed the blade underneath its jaw.

Mirage pushed it up with all her force, feeling the sharp blade pierce the skin and enter the cranium.

The snake tensed up for a brief moment, before going limp. Mirage breached the surface, gasping for air, pushing away the carcass. As she got finally free, she rushed to climb up. In the opening of the tunnel, she stood there for a minute, shaking, trying to gather her senses.

Stumbling forward a few meters, she then vomited.

Saunders still sat at his desk. He selected a new communication channel. On the screen, a man appeared, wearing a thick rubber suit that completely covered his body. It seemed slightly pressurized, as its orange fabric was distended. An air hose, attached to a clear plastic bubble that made its helmet, reached to the ceiling. Saunders could see the man's gaze pierce through the plastic.

"So, where are we now?" Saunders inquired.

The man in the suit hesitated for a moment.

"Sir, we still need about three more days to finish the cycle. If we used them now, they'd still be able to do their job, but their life span would be reduced. They wouldn't spread as far."

Saunders became impatient. "I don't want excuses. I want the batch to be operational in forty-eight hours…"

The man responded. "You won't have reached the optimal level, there aren't any guarantees... It could fail completely."

Saunders barked at the man. "I don't care about that, the client won't mind, he won't see the difference. But you _will_ if you don't finish this in time."

Saunders turned off the video. He stared at the phone for a second before picking it up.

"This is the Captain. I have good news... Your shipment will be ready in about forty-eight hours…

Yes, I assure you it is of the most superior quality… You have nothing to worry about."

Saunders thought for a second.

"However, I have to mention that the security of the operation might have been breached… Oh, don't worry... It's nothing of importance. It seems one of our operatives has turned on us. Yes, we know who... Syndrome's young assistant. She is not a significant threat."

Saunders voice hesitated when he said that.

"We are confident no information has been leaked. We've got the situation under control… May I recommend extra caution the next couple of days? I hope this doesn't alter the deal?"

He looked pleased.

"Thank you, I'll keep you informed when we've disposed of her or when we have new developments."

He hung up the phone.

Mirage forgot for how long she'd been walking now. The tunnel was completely dry. It seemed she could breathe better.

Mirage wondered about the rumbling sound she heard, coming from the distance ahead. The darkness that surrounded her was slowly receding as the sound grew louder.

Mirage was sure of it, there was daylight somewhere ahead. She felt compelled to rush forward, exhausted by the darkness, desperate for fresh air.

She was temporarily disoriented as daylight suddenly engulfed her, a roaring sound filling her ears. A gust of wind almost made her lose her balance, barely having enough time to grab hold of the wall.

Mirage had come upon an enormous opening; the tunnel had ended abruptly on the inside of a gigantic chimney. The structure was colossal, making her feel microscopic.

She looked around her.

The chimney's inside were smooth, gray concrete, disappearing in the distance in front of her, but plunging also, far away. Looking down, Mirage couldn't tell how deep it was. A ladder, embedded into the wall besides the opening, led down to the bottom. High above, the chimney opened to blue skies, its walls slanting up in a negative slope.

Mirage had reached the main cooling tower of the geothermal power plant that supplied energy to the island.

She stepped carefully on the ladder, and started her descent.

_They won't be expecting me down there_, she thought, going through the next steps of her plan.

_I'll have to find a console, wait for the window, and make the download..._

Mirage felt her hope fade as she went down the ladder.

_I'll have to create a diversion to get to the plane... As soon as I'm out of the transmission blackout bubble, I can send the data out..._

Mirage knew what that meant.

_It won't matter then if they send missiles after me... No, it won't matter anymore._

She looked down.

_I wish I could fly..._

Mirage kept going, counting the steps she took to take her mind off the dark path she was on.

The wind was getting stronger as she went down, the air, hotter. The low frequency of the rumbling sound made her whole body vibrate. Mirage's hands were getting tired of holding on to the bars. She was getting eager to reach the bottom. It took about an hour for her to touch the ground.

She felt relief as she got off the ladder. Valves and pipes came and went from every direction, engulfing Mirage in an industrial maze. Some of the pipes were glowing red from the lava flowing within. The automatic processes around her were oblivious to her presence.

Mirage had reached the heart of the island. She knew if she were to deal a final blow to this place, it would be here she would make it happen.

She reached an open door as she walked on a marked path between the steel and concrete. Glancing on the other side, Mirage made sure no one was in sight before proceeding. As she expected, the area was deserted.

She had entered the power plant's generator area. Like everything else on the island, it had gigantic proportions; Pipes of all sizes came out of the ground, glowing from the heat within them. They led to heat exchangers located underneath massive boilers. Turbines, powered by the steam that the heat of the lava created, were humming, running at optimal capacity. At the bottom of a large fissure in the ground, lay an open pit where lava overflow was diverted, heating the air to a point where it was nearly impossible to breathe.

Mirage focused her attention on the three steam boilers in front of her, spotting an elevator shaft near one of them. Its door gave on to a small platform that one could reach by climbing a few steps.

On the left of the platform, an unattended computer terminal was operational.

Mirage dashed towards it. Sitting down on the chair, she glanced at the controls.

_Five more minutes until the next window,_ she thought.

_I'll have about five more to reach the surface before they get organized... I'll have to keep them busy..._

Mirage looked around.

_I could blow up something... _

_Something preferably big..._

Mirage stared at the giant boilers.

The sound of a conversation suddenly broke Mirage's chain of thoughts. Men were coming her way. Panicking, Mirage looked beyond the platform, focusing her gaze on the base of one of the boilers. Transmutating there silently, she reappeared in the darkness behind it.

Mirage saw two men clad in what seemed like protection suits, pushing a cart loaded with glass canisters. They were heading towards the end of the room. Stopping in front of a closed door, one of the men held up a magnetic card. The steel door slid open.

Mirage hesitated as the men walked in. The glass canisters they were carrying were of a familiar design.

She hadn't succeeded in gathering all the information she wanted on the activities of the island.

The opportunity was too great to pass.

Mirage transmutated towards the open door. She reached it in a few jumps, to stop on the other side, diving for cover behind pipes near the opening.

The room, smaller than the main hangar, seemed to have been carved directly in stone. Power cables on the ground went to its center, connecting into a steel and glass structure erected there, similar to a laboratory.

The men opened an airtight door and entered the small enclosure.

Mirage transmutated again, jumping towards the back of the lab. Hiding between the rock and its outer wall, Mirage could peek inside without being seen.

On the other side of the window lay rows of glass canisters, each of them numbered. On tables, Petri dishes were open. Mirage could see some of them had been used already, as they were filled with colored streaks.

Mirage knew the color display meant something grew there. As she looked around, she didn't have to guess anymore.

The lab technicians weren't discreet, confident the lab was a secret.

The tables were plainly marked to identify the contents of the jars...

Marburg.

Ebola.

Smallpox.

Sarin.

Ricin.

Mirage sweat as she read the names of the poisonous agents before her.

There seemed to be enough there to kill millions, perhaps more.

_Did Syndrome know about this? _

Mirage was trying to remember if anything he said could have linked him to this.

She had no memories of anything.

_Syndrome was a child... He was vain. He would have told me something... _

Mirage ducked as she saw the technicians come into view inside the lab. One of them typed a few commands on a nearby computer console. Mirage flinched when a familiar face filled the screen.

Saunders.

It was Saunders who controlled the operation. It made sense to her now… He was always suggesting to Syndrome that he should take on the more mundane part of operating the island, so that Syndrome could focus more on his little ambitions.

Mirage had noticed that the laboratory wasn't a permanent installation; it probably would be easier to dismantle and move around in case Syndrome had become too inquisitive…

She couldn't hear what Saunders was saying through the thick glass window. Without thinking, she lifted her head up to better see inside.

Saunders saw her.

He froze for a second. He then glared at the technicians. Mirage saw them turning around to point at her. They dashed towards the exit, as an alarm blared out. Getting up, she stared at Saunders. Through the glass he seemed to be yelling out orders.

Mirage had pulled her knife out as she expected the technicians to come around the lab to confront her. She was surprised to see them run towards the exit instead.

A loud voice came booming out from an intercom, echoing on the walls.

"Hello again, Mirage," Saunders said, calmly. "I was expecting your visit. I knew you'd come back, there was nowhere else for you to go…"

The voice on the PA darkened.

"I admire your determination, but I'm not surprised you made it this far… After all, you are a Super, am I right? How do you like my little operation? I think you know what it's about by now."

Mirage listened on.

"You know, curiosity killed the cat, Mirage… I'm truly sorry, but I have to deal with you now, like I should have done a long time ago."

Saunders paused.

"I've sent you an old friend to keep you company. I'm sure an introduction isn't necessary…"

Mirage heard a rumbling sound fill the room.

She hadn't seen that the wall opposite the lab was actually a gigantic door that had now opened.

Mirage froze as she looked up.

She had come face to face with an Omnidroid.


	6. A1, 3432

**CHAPTER SIX: A-1, 3432**

Mirage stood immobile for a moment as she looked at the robot. The Omnidroid in front of her, a backup machine Syndrome had designed so time ago, hadn't come out of the production line recently. Mirage knew what place it held, but not being the most recent didn't matter, as it still remained a threat.

The spherical robot, armoured in thick black unpolished steel, towered over her, its energy source emitting an audible, humming sound. Long claws ending its flexible legs nervously twitched, tapping occasionally on the ground, giving the eerie sensation that the machine could have been alive and impatient.The robot did not move, as if waiting for a command.

Her body tense, Mirage turned to look behind her, to the door she had walked through. The robot sensed her movement. As if on cue, two hatches popped open, revealing eye-like optical sensors beneath them which started rotating on their base. The machine scanned the room methodically.

The robot's eyes locked on Mirage.

Without any warning, the Omnidroid rushed towards her. It seemed to be familiar with the area for it avoided the laboratory, moving fast around it. Blocking Mirage from the door, it whipped out one of its legs forward, its end like an open hand with fingers of steel.

Mirage jumped sideways, just as the robot would have grabbed her, transmutating away as far as she could go, to try to reach the door. The robot kept blocking her path. Mirage tried to fool it by creating Avatars, but the machine seemed to be able to separate illusion from reality, forcing her to jump elsewhere continuously.

Mirage couldn't rematerialize far from where she had previously been. As the robot kept obstructing the door, she struggled more and more to avoid being taken in its grasp. The machine seemed to be adjusting to this intriguing prey, reacting almost as if it were amused, getting closer to where Mirage reappeared every time.

Her strength slowly drained from her body as she kept transmutating incessantly back and forth. Very soon, she wouldn't be able anymore.

Mirage was exhausted now. She failed as she tried one more time, standing still for a second. The shadow of the Omnidroid passed over her.

In a flash, the robot grabbed her. The metal fingers wrapped themselves tightly around her body, with crushing strength, as the robot did not seem to care about the relative fragility of its prey.

Effortlessly, the robot lifted Mirage off the ground. There was no escaping, as the grasp that held her wouldn't let go. Mirage could barely breathe, the robot pinning her arms against her body. The metal hand tightened once more, making her gasp from the pain she now felt.

The robot took two other available legs and lifted them up to her height, the claws at their feet spinning like propellers, filling the air with a loud thumping sound. The rotating fingers were slowly coming towards her. Mirage, helpless, felt them swishing as they got closer to her neck. The blades were almost on her now.

All Mirage could do was close her eyes.

Without warning, the steel fingers suddenly stopped turning, centimeters from her throat. Unsure of what had happened, Mirage opened her eyes to look around.

Saunders stood below her. He had ordered the robot to stop, with the remote control he had on his arm.

He stared up at her. Thinking for a second, he then put his finger on the rotating button of his remote, to quickly go through the available items of the menu of the Omnidroid's controls he could see on a small liquid crystal screen embedded in the device. Mirage saw it had the same design as the one Syndrome used.

The robot quietly powered down.

Saunders looked elated, excited, as he saw her captured. He addressed her loudly.

"Well, that, my dear, was something else! What an impressive display of power you just showed me... Is that all you can do?"

A group of armed guards rushed out of nowhere, to stand by his side.

He gesticulated nervously as he spoke. "No, really, I feel like a kid in a magic show, poof! You're gone. Oh, wow… This is truly incredible."

Saunders pressed the button of his remote control. The robot slowly lowered Mirage, bringing her in front of him, her feet dangling in the air as the metal hand kept her suspended a few centimeters off the ground. Mirage could breathe again, for the robot had slightly relaxed its grip on her.

"Mirage," Saunders sighed, as he walked up to her, "you are as beautiful as you are annoying... What is it with _your_ kind?" he suddenly said, snapping at her. "What is it that makes you want to play Girl Scout all the time?"

He pointed his finger at her. "For that's what you are, aren't you sweetheart?"

Saunders glared at her. "You Supers think you're better than everybody else. The problem is you're not. You're just like everyone. You are so, _naïve…_ You're all obsessed with the idea you have to do good deeds all the time, right whatever wrong you find..." Saunders was wide-eyed. "You are so _bound_ to this, you're blind to the fact you're all prisoners of your own free will, you are just not giving yourself any _choice_."

He went on. "Well, let me tell you something, Mirage. I don't have that problem..."

He leaned closer to her. "Mirage," he added, pompously, "morality, as you surely know, is a very fragile concept… It is whoever _decides_ what is moral that makes it so."

Mirage was not impressed by what he said to her. "You're a murderer," she said, "I know, I saw the bodies of your victims."

Saunders answered nonchalantly. "Oh, is that how you got in here? That would explain your awful _smell_… Well, let me put it this way, I'll get rid of anyone who would oppose me, sweetie, anyone, not just Supers."

Mirage stared at him defiantly. "Like some of your men?" As she said that, some of the guards quietly looked at each other.

Saunders did not answer. Reaching out, he touched Mirage's face, to then slowly run his fingers through her hair.

"My, my," he said, "you truly are beautiful. Such a shame that I'll have to get rid of you. I can't have you ruin my operation, you see..."

Saunders noticed the knife strapped to her leg. Pulling it out of its sheath, he looked at it briefly, eyeing its sharpness. He then placed the blade under her nose.

"This is sharp," he said. "You know you shouldn't be playing with this, you could cut yourself…"

He placed the tip of the blade against her cheek, pressing it forward gently, poking at her. Mirage tried to pull back as she felt the cold metal beginning to penetrate her skin.

Saunders took the knife away, putting it underneath his utility belt. "I'll leave a much_ nicer_ mark on you later," he said, sneering. "Back to business, Mirage... I would like to know more about what you were attempting to download in the computer room, and also would like to know about the disappearance of some of the money of my associates." Saunders added, "I'm particularly angry about this, Mirage."

Mirage spoke calmly. "By associates, you mean your little criminal buddies?"

Saunders questioned her again. "Who do you work for, Mirage?"

She didn't answer.

Saunders was silent for a second as he gazed at her. "I know what you did," he added. "You're a Girl Scout and Robin Hood all meshed into one… Only if I remember correctly, Robin Hood didn't keep the money for himself." He nodded. "Sad, very sad, indeed."

As he came closer, Mirage could feel his breath on her face as he spoke to her. "I don't know how you did it, but you will tell me where the money is, Mirage."

Saunders smiled. Mirage noticed he trembled slightly as he leaned his elbow on the mechanical claw. "I have ways of making you talk," he said quietly, a subtle shake in his voice.

Saunders looked deep into her eyes.

"In fact…" He took a deep breath. "I'm going to make you _sing_, Mirage…"

Turning away to address the group of guards, he gestured in her direction.

Mirage saw the armed men move towards her. As she frantically looked around to find a way to escape, her attention focused on the robot besides her. Looking up and down, her gaze stopped on one of the open hatches, where the Omnidroid's eyes were visible.

In an instant, she realized what she had to do. Mirage felt her strength return.

"Saunders!" Mirage growled out, loud enough to be heard by everyone.

Upon hearing his name, the Captain turned to face her, seeing Mirage looking down at him, with a cold, hard stare. The guards had stopped in their tracks, hesitant to go on. He had never seen her this way…

"Saunders," Mirage repeated again, as she glared at him.

"_Just watch me_," she said.

A thin, silvery halo enveloped her as she quickly dissolved into nothingness. The robot hand that held her oscillated for a second, as the weight inside it suddenly vanished. Saunders was speechless, staring at the empty fingers. The men, who also had witnessed the event, had stunned looks on their faces as they were looking around them, confused and worried.

He saw her reappear underneath the robot, only having time to point his finger in her direction, as she had already disappeared again.

Saunders screamed at his men, shouting orders to have them find her. The soldiers spread out, weapons drawn, but she had vanished.

As Saunders looked at the robot, a voice came over the intercom. "Sir," the voice said, "Central Control, here. We have detected a presence inside the Omnidroid…" The voice added, "Sir, she's inside the robot."

Saunders's jaw dropped as he turned white with anger. Frantically, he scrolled through the available menu items of his remote. Having made his selection, he pressed the button. Thinking it would hold her trapped, he had ordered the robot to immediately shut its hatches.

Mirage had rematerialized inside the machine. It was a blind shot for her, as she usually always transmutated to places she could visualize clearly. She only had seen the plans of the robot a few times to know approximately where the maintenance area of the Omnidroid lay.

Reappearing right in the middle of the cavity, she came crashing down, bouncing off control panels around her. Cables and gears ran from every direction in the area, barely big enough to fit one person. As Mirage got her bearings, she looked around through the maze of wire and tubing. The maintenance area had crude comforts, the air stale and dusty, difficult to breathe.

In a corner, attached by Velcro tags, lay a computer keyboard, with a small screen besides it.

Mirage grabbed the keyboard, and placed it on her knees. Lack of space forced her to crouch, leaning against a panel, holding the keyboard close to her face.

Powering up the terminal, a small, yellow invite appeared on the left end of the dark green video monitor.

"Dos," she muttered. "I _hate_ Dos." Mirage started typing furiously.

Saunders stood besides the Omnidroid. He had told his men to spread out, to cover all possible angles. Some of them held high powered rifles as they took their respective vantage points, scanning everything in their telescopic sites.

He grew impatient. Selecting another command, he turned on the robot's internal speakers to address her. "Mirage, my dear, I suggest that you come out of there immediately... I would be offended to have you forced out. After all, I am a gentleman…" Saunders smirked as he said that. "Please, do come out… I won't hurt you, I swear," he added, smiling.

There was no response.

"I'm giving you ten seconds," he said, as he looked at his watch.

Mirage wasn't listening to the voice coming out of the speaker, as her attention fully focused on what she attempted to do.

It took what seemed an eternity to reach what she had been looking for.

Mirage had managed to open the main directory of the central computer. On the screen, thousands of available directories had unfurled.

She tried to remember the exact location of the file she had been searching for. It was buried somewhere, deep inside the labyrinth of available paths. As the operating system was of an ancient design, it had no available search engine. She would have to dig for the file until she found it.

_Where's a mouse when you need one,_ she said to herself, moving forward, finding the appropriate directories to go into, one by one.

Saunders looked at his watch. "Time is up, Mirage. Well, I'm sorry then… If you don't want to cooperate, I guess I'm going to have to send you on your way…"

Saunders manipulated his remote one more time. The robot stirred, starting to walk forward at a leisurely pace. "You seem a little bit cold," he said. "Let me help you warm up a bit."

He had directed the robot towards the lava pit.

Saunders's eyes were wide and gleaming as he looked at the moving robot. "_Will_ she get out? _Can_ she get out? Come on, Mirage," he said, laughing.

The Omnidroid moved on, oblivious to what lay ahead.

Mirage sighed as she finally reached the directory she had been looking for. At the bottom of the file list, a small program, only of a few kilobytes in size, had her name:

**_Mirage.exe_**

Mirage typed the file's name at the end of the path and pressed Enter.

Almost instantaneously, higher up near the surface of the island, something quietly stirred, deep inside the central computer's command shell.

The operator sitting at the terminal in Central Control thought at first that there had been a glitch in the operating system, as all the screens in the room went blank for a second.

He knew something was wrong when he typed a routine command only to see nothing had happened. He immediately contacted the Captain.

It was an elegant program, like all programs Mirage had designed. It had waited, buried deep inside the myriad of system files, ready to fulfill its sole purpose when called upon. It would only serve once, though. It would create a panic, and that would give too much attention to its owner. Mirage had never tested it. Its use would have been something of a last resort for her, but there was no questioning the moment had arrived.

As soon as the little file had been downloaded and opened, the program immediately came to life. It coaxed, gently at first, but with growing strength and an unyielding will, the Central Processing Unit to reroute the main terminal control to the console from where the program had been launched.

In this case, Central Control would be redirected to the small on board computer of an active Omnidroid, deep below the surface.

The CPU had blindly obeyed, as it would have had to any other command. There was no trying to override this chain of events.

Mirage looked at another video display that enabled her to monitor the exterior surroundings of the Omnidroid.

She saw Saunders had ordered the robot towards the pit.

Mirage waited desperately for the computer screen to display new instructions, as the Omnidroid had only meters to go before reaching the edge of the fissure.

She cried out as she saw the screen's content had changed:

**_Program complete_**

**_Override active_**

Looking out, she could now see the lava below the edge of the pit. Typing furiously another command, the screen in front of her then displayed a new result:

**_Voice command interface on_**

**_Communication port 1435 open_**

Her heart pounding in her chest as she read the message, Mirage yelled out: "This is Alpha-One, thirty-four thirty-two, Computer! Halt robot!"

Saunders had kept watching. He felt slightly numb, his fingers tingling, as he saw the Omnidroid had only a few more steps to take before it would plunge in the molten rock.

He didn't feel any regret in sending her to her death, as she had been just a minor problem in his plans. He was actually glad to have been the one who would witness her final moment.

He only wished he had an internal video link to watch her agonize, trapped inside, slowly cooked alive by the searing heat.

The machine had reached the edge of the fissure when it suddenly froze in its tracks. Saunders's fists clenched, as his blood pressure rose. He reached for his remote. The small screen flashed a message:

**_No signal_**

Mirage looked at the monitor, realizing she had forgotten to breathe for the last minute. She would never debate anymore the idea that vocal commands would always be faster to send than typed ones. The monitor showed Saunders shouting orders at the men that were spread around.

A panicked voice blared out on the intercom. "Sir, Central Control here. She's taken command of the robot."

Saunders raged as he responded, "well, get it back, now!"

The voice answered. "We can't. Nothing is responding."

"Find a way, damn it! Find a way!" Saunders screamed.

The voice was trembling. "Sir, we can't do anything... Nothing is operating here, we can only monitor what's going on."

Mirage had kept an eye on the internal clock display. There was only ten seconds left before the next download would be available. She reached behind her neck, unclasped her pendant, and put the disk inside the drive that had popped open in front of her. Pressing a button, the drive closed. Mirage stared at it, her teeth clenched.

The operator at Central Control wondered for a second why the computer had started a downloading sequence. He jumped up when he realized what was going on.

"Sir," he said, not understanding the real meaning of the manoeuvre, "Sir, she seems to be attempting a download…"

Saunders was panicking now. "Stop her, stop her now! You have to stop that download!"

As he heard nothing else, seeing the helpless look the men gave him, he raged, "you idiots! I'll do it myself." Saunders dashed towards the opposite end of the generator room, where a steel locker stood against a wall.

Mirage looked at the small screen, feeling an adrenalin rush go through her veins as she read the message that had appeared:

**_Download complete_**

Mirage quickly removed the disk from the drive and attached it back to her neck. With the voice interface, she then gave one more order to the computer.

The landing strip of the hangar on the surface had been unattended for a while now. In a corner, a little black plane lay still.

No one noticed that the Manta-Plane had powered up silently, as everyone's attention focused on what went down below, the engines idling as the internal control systems went fully online. Quietly, the door of the plane unlocked and opened as the access ladder unfurled down to the runway.

Mirage saw on the screen that her command had been successful. She looked again outside through the surveillance monitor. The automated defence system of the Omnidroid had been active, programmed to spot any potential threat in its whereabouts. All the guards around her were visible on the video monitor, highlighted, with separate identification numbers, like small targets. She could easily have done away with them if she had wanted to, but they did not matter to her. Mirage pressed on the external speaker control instead.

"Saunders!" a metallic voice said, cracking out from the robot and resonating on the walls. The Captain stopped in his tracks as he recognized her voice.

"I have a suggestion for you and your men," Mirage said in an apparent light tone. "It seems I have the upper hand right now… So, may I suggest you and your men leave the area immediately?"

Mirage added, "If you want to debate this, I'd be quite pleased to do so."

The guards looked at each other.

Mirage's voice darkened. "Get out," she said, "now."

The men surrounding the Omnidroid became nervous.

Saunders just stood there. Her defiance of him and his men, made him angrier than he had ever been.

Mirage sent out another vocal command to the robot. Responding immediately, the Omnidroid opened a portal on the top of its outer shell from which a small laser canon came out.

Mirage grabbed a control joystick connected to a panel in front of her. Having called for manual control, she pushed the lever forward. The robot moved again, heading towards the smaller chamber where the laboratory stood.

The Omnidroid entered the room, stopping near the doorway. On the monitor screen, the targeting system had illuminated the laboratory.

Mirage had her hand on the firing button, but did not press it, instead changing her target to aim the weapon at a massive pipe that crossed the ceiling.

She pressed the trigger.

The laser emitted a powerful pulse of light that hit the pipe dead on, severing it instantly, and like an artery that would have been cut, it spewed out molten lava. The burning liquid engulfed the small laboratory within seconds, melting its structure away, the intense heat destroying, vaporising, any poisonous agent that might have leaked out, sending them back to into sterility.

Some of the guards had turned white as they saw the lab destroyed. Most alarming had been the lava that now had started to fill the room. In a state of panic, the men dropped their weapons, as they dashed towards the nearest available exits.

Saunders had witnessed the whole chain of events, ordering his guards to stay in position, but none had obeyed him. He soon realized it was to no avail.

Saunders had been abandoned.

A general alarm blared, resonating everywhere, as the lava that had engulfed the lab came pouring out the open doors into the main generator room.

Mirage had turned the robot around. Aiming the laser at the base of one of the giant boilers, she pressed the trigger again. The laser cut through the thick steel as if it were butter, sending the heavy piece of machinery tumbling down from its base, as burning steam spewed out from its broken structure. As the boiler separated itself from the others, it ripped into the adjacent piping, sending more lava on the ground.

The large boiler started floating on the bed of molten rock that had formed underneath it. It slowly slid towards the fissure, to then tumble inside it.

The lava level started rising, as the piece of equipment now blocked the evacuation channel.

Saunders was powerless. Mirage had destroyed, in an instant, his most important asset. She had mocked him and made him a fool. More than ever, he hated her now. He trembled with anger. "You'll pay for this," he said to himself.

Saunders had finally reached what he wanted. Standing in front of the closed storage space, he quickly punched an access code on the small electronic keypad, the lock making a sound as it opened.

Saunders spread the steel doors. In rows, in front of him, lay all sorts of different weapons, none of the conventional kind. Syndrome had been obviously testing new technologies. They were ominous looking, coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes, some sleek, others cumbersome, but all of them had the common characteristic of being lethal.

Saunders grabbed the largest he could find. It was a black, shiny metallic tube about two meters long, heavy, as he strained when he put it over his shoulder. He turned around, aiming for the robot he could see in his telescopic site.

"Why don't you try this one on for size, bright eyes?" he muttered.

He pressed the trigger.

Mirage had brought the robot back near the elevator platform. The threat assessment system of the Omnidroid had activated as soon as the robot detected Saunders's weapon, but there wasn't much else to do, for Mirage had disabled the automatic defence mechanism when taking manual control. It could only warn her.

Syndrome had been experimenting for some time now, with what he considered being the foundation of the forces of the known universe, managing to create all sorts of weapons so sophiticated, they could alter atoms at their core. Saunders would have the privilege of testing one of them for the first time.

The Magnetic Pulse Launcher he carried fired a projectile which on impact, released a very intense magnetic field that disabled anything that possessed a Central Processing Unit, to be immediately followed by a burst of low yield antimatter that anhilitated the target completely, but keeping damage contained to the area of the hit, not its surroundings.

A ball of light, iridescent with blue and golden hues, shot out of the canon, growing in size as it approached the robot.

On impact, the energy sphere engulfed the Omnidroid. Saunders felt a wave of low frequency sound bounce back on him as he saw the Omnidroid turn bright blue, to then start glowing in a deep red before vanishing in a shrieking, ear shattering sound.

The Omnidroid had disintegrated completely, leaving a small crater underneath where it last had been.

Mirage saw Saunders point the experimental weapon in her direction. Throwing the keyboard away, she lunged forward through the web of tangled cables to reach for the maintenance hatch. Pulling hard on its unlocking lever, Mirage opened it just as the projectile reached her.

Saunders still had the weapon on his shoulder when he felt it vibrate, hearing a sizzling sound coming from it. Reacting quickly, he threw it away from him as he ducked for cover. The launcher blew up before it touched the ground, shattering in pieces that flew everywhere like shrapnel. Still stunned by the explosion, he looked towards the platform.

He froze as he saw Mirage had reappeared there.

As she had very little warning, Mirage didn't have time to aim properly for the platform to make a soft landing. Materializing a few meters above it, she came crashing down, bouncing a few times before sliding to a stop, near the edge of the staircase. Hurt by the fall, disoriented, she struggled to get up, to stand besides the stairs, her back turned away from the Captain.

Saunders grabbed the opportunity.

Aiming at her with his gun, he fired a single shot.

The bullet hit Mirage on the outside of the left shoulder, shattering on impact, making her yelp in pain as blood splattered on the platform. Shocked by the trauma, she lost her footing to fall down the stairs, tumbling to the bottom.

Mirage landed hard on the ground. She lay there dizzy and bruised, her back leaning against the staircase, her arm bleeding openly as the bullet had severed many arteries.

Mirage could barely focus on her surroundings. In the haze that filled her eyes, she saw Saunders walking towards her.

He had drawn his weapon.


	7. OUT OF BREATH

**CHAPTER SEVEN: OUT OF BREATH**

Saunders stood silently over Mirage for a moment. Putting his gun away, he kneeled down besides her to examine the wound he had made. He grabbed her injured arm, holding it firmly, making Mirage flinch from the pain.

She looked at him. It seemed that, enveloped by the red light emanating from the molten lava, Saunders had suddenly aged ten years. He looked tired now, old, his jaw clenched, lips white. He was eyeing her with a frown of defeat mixed with puzzlement, like a man who had seen too much and who could not bear any new burden. His eyes focused on her as he tightened the grip on her arm, grimacing, as he knew he was hurting her.

Saunders seemed concerned, though not by her injury, but with the fact that the generator area appeared to be slowly disintegrating. Mirage had caused a lot of damage in very little time. The installations were falling apart; two of the main boilers had been destroyed, the third one still stood but leaked searing steam. The lava level had reached the edge of the fissure and was now flowing out, spreading slowly like a red blanket, covering everything in its path. It would reach the base of the stairs soon.

"Why don't you do your little trick? I'd like to see it again," Saunders said to her, snarling through his teeth. He looked at her with curiosity, tilting his head on one side, not fully understanding the situation. "You can't do it, can you?" he said to her with satisfaction in his voice, laughing. "What kind of Super are you?" Saunders felt good at that moment, seeing Mirage injured, lying helpless against the stairs.

Saunders looked at the open wound in her arm. He reached towards it, to put his finger on the edge of torn flesh. He enjoyed touching Mirage. He rubbed his finger slowly around the opening of the wound, blood collecting on it, to run down his hand. Mirage trembled from the pain, but said nothing.

Saunders stopped for a second. He then poked his finger inside the gaping wound, making Mirage scream in agony. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt you?" he said, in an excited, maniacal laugh.

He looked at the blood that had now covered his hand. An astonished expression suddenly crossed his face. Saunders had never seen anything like this.

In his hand, Mirage's blood glowed. Saunders thought for a moment that he might have been having hallucinations, but as he looked closer, he knew what he saw was real. A shimmering aura, faint, but clearly visible, surrounded the dark liquid. It remained there for a few seconds before fading. Now, all Saunders had in his hand was viscous blood, already coagulating. Saunders tightened the grip on her arm.

"_What are you_?" he barked at her. He looked afraid, but his eyes were filled with hate. "You're not even _human_…" He spat out those words in anger, mixed with disgust.

A sudden noise coming from a collapsing structure behind them made him turn around. After seeing they weren't immediately threatened, Saunders turned back to address her. Still holding her by the arm, he grabbed her by the collar, lifting her limp body up, her feet dragging on the ground.

"It seems you made a pretty good job at messing up my operation, Mirage," he said to her. "I'm going to make you pay for this..." He looked at her pendant. "But, first things first, let's see if we can figure out what you've downloaded here, I'm very anxious to know."

Saunders pushed Mirage against the staircase, holding her down. "Just to make sure you're not going anywhere, let me take a precaution."

The Captain took handcuffs from his utility belt, attached one end to his wrist, the other on the wrist of Mirage's wounded arm. She feebly attempted to resist, tears filling her eyes.

"Now, please come up with me, and let's see what you've got there," Saunders said, as he started climbing the stairs, dragging Mirage along from her injured arm, making her cry out from the unbearable pain.

As they reached the top of the platform, Saunders looked around. The damage Mirage had made was obviously irreversible. The lava level had risen steadily, to reach the base of the remaining boiler. It would be just a matter of time before it would also collapse. A low rumbling sound seemed to come from the ground below them, continuous and getting stronger. Occasional tremors shook the platform they were on, making Mirage wonder if it would collapse. Below them, the volcanic pressure slowly built as the evacuation channel had been blocked.

Saunders lifted Mirage to her feet again. He was a relatively strong man, it was easy for him. Dragging her to the computer console, he lifted her up to push her hard against it, Mirage's back forced to rest upon the angled control panel. Reaching for her neck to rip off the pendant and discarding the chain and clasp, he then scrutinized the small disk, rubbing it curiously between his fingers. He glanced around the console for an available drive. Finding one near Mirage's shoulder, he put the disk inside it.

Above them, a large screen lit up, showing the data the disk contained. It appeared, displayed line by line.

Saunders was stunned by what he saw: A list of hundreds of names had unfurled. Each entry came along with information relating to bank accounts, numbers, amounts, addresses and owners. The men and women listed on the screen were exposed, as were the aliases they used. The list also contained a detailed description of their known whereabouts, safe houses and accomplices.

The data had a timer that indicated it would be good for only twelve hours. After that, the algorithm of the encryption key that came with the data would re-scramble the information, the real identity of the people on the list fading away, lost again in cyberspace, the records useless to anyone who would have tried to identify those involved.

Saunders flinched when he recognized the names listed. "You still haven't told me who you're working for, Mirage," he said to her. "My employers would not be happy to be _ousted _like this you know, but they would certainly appreciate learning who is trying to bring them down."

Saunders voice became colder, as he seemed to have discovered a partial truth that he felt was unpleasant. "So, Mirage, you were just a spy, were you? Some kind of lower level operative initially sent by the government to find out who got rid of all the Supers... I'm not surprised, the government protected them. They must have wondered who was bumping off their investment and for what reason."

Saunders frowned at her. "Well, you got smart, obviously... When you figured out there was more to just Syndrome and his obsession with that Super, Mr. Incredible, you decided to stay on the ride a little longer." Saunders looked down at her. "Congratulations on a job well done, Mirage, you played us all along."

"Syndrome was a fool, Mirage," Saunders boasted, proud of his lack of respect for his former employer. "But I'm not. I had an eye on you since the day you set foot on the island. I wasn't fooled by your pretty girl charms." He shook her arm. "I'm just glad I caught you in time before you sent the data out." Saunders shook his head in disbelief. "You were on the plane, you could have gotten away, but you came back. That confirmed to me you were up to something and I decided to act."

Saunders looked triumphant. "That was your fatal mistake, Mirage." He smiled at her. "You _failed._ This information will never leave the island."

Saunders turned to look back as the rumbling sound engulfing the room became louder as a violent tremor shook the platform from side to side. Holding on to the console, the Captain stared at the lava for a few moments. His face changed. Mirage became concerned even more as she read his expression; He looked out in the distance, but he was lost in his thoughts. Saunders gazed down towards the stairs. It had all become clear to him now.

Everything he had possessed had been destroyed. He wouldn't admit it, but he knew he was a broken man, a dead man even, as the loss of the laboratory would probably never be forgiven by those who had invested in it. He had nowhere to go now, and Mirage was to be blamed for that.

No, the data would never leave the room, and Saunders decided in that instant, that neither would they.

Saunders looked again at the lava, its edge creeping slowly towards them. It would reach the bottom of the stairs within a few minutes.

"The island is falling apart, Mirage," he said to her calmly. "You've ruined me, you know..."

As he said that, he started trembling, his body almost convulsing. Mirage saw tears appear in his eyes. He turned away briefly to hide the fact that he sobbed now, unable to face her.

Saunders turned to look at her again. "I hate you," he said, through his clenched teeth, eyes red and wide, filled with tears. "I _hate _you, Mirage." His voice became shrill. "I've _always _hated you… Ever since the first day I ever laid eyes on you."

Saunders knew he was lying to himself as he said that. He had always known what he felt for Mirage. He would have chosen to burn in the fires of hell forever, only if he could have possessed her. And when their eyes first met, as she came out of the plane, Syndrome by her side, he knew in a moment that he was damned.

With a look of desperation on his face, the Captain leaned forward unexpectedly. He kissed Mirage in a long, slobbering, nervous kiss, his wet mouth open on hers. As he pulled away from her, he bit the edge of her lip, drawing a small amount of blood.

"You taste good, Mirage," he said calmly, as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "I knew you would." He pulled his head back, eyeing her down with apparent curiosity.

"I never understood my attraction to your _kind_ though," he said nervously, in a thin voice, trying to convince himself. "How could I be attracted to a Super? After all," he nodded, "they're _filth._"

Mirage felt a surge of rage growing inside her as she heard those words. She spat in his face. The gesture stunned Saunders momentarily, surprised that she had been so daring. He laughed as he wiped his face.

He put his free hand around her throat, forcing her head back against the console. She tried to wrestle herself away from him, but wasn't strong enough. Mirage felt the Captain's hand slowly squeeze, fingers of steel choking her, making her cough and gasp as she could barely breathe. The Captain felt a rush of pleasure, as he felt her struggling, terrified and helpless under his hand.

"You've ruined me," he said again, his voice high. He leaned on her, with all his weight, looking deep into her eyes.

"I'm going to kill you, Mirage," the Captain said coldly, his breath short. "But before I do that, I'm going to hurt you." Saunders was almost crushing her throat. "I'm going to hurt you so much, you will be wishing you were _dead_."

He looked at the computer console. "But first, let us get rid of this annoying data." Saunders turned away from her, to reach out to press the delete button.

The Captain's gesture gave Mirage a surge of adrenalin. For a fraction of a second, she never felt stronger.

As hard as she could, she slammed the palm of her free hand under the bridge of Saunders's nose, breaking it instantly. The Captain yelled out from the pain, pushing himself away from her, putting his hands up to protect his bleeding nose.

Mirage lifted both her legs, put her feet firmly against his sternum, and with all her remaining strength, pushed him. The Captain stumbled backwards as he lost his balance, dragging Mirage off the console along with him. They both fell to the floor, side by side. Mirage instinctively pushed herself away from him, as far as she could.

Mirage needed him to let go of her. She would only have a fraction of a second. As soon as he had stopped touching her, she vanished, the handcuffs hanging on Saunders's arm, one half empty.

Saunders had pulled out his gun as he got up, looking around for her. He shot at her immediately, as he saw her briefly standing in front of him a few meters away. The bullet went through Mirage's avatar. The image did not flinch.

In a flash, before Saunders knew where she could be, Mirage reappeared on his side.

With all her might, she hit him on the edge of the jaw with the fist of her able arm. Mirage felt Saunders's skull shake under her knuckles. He was stunned by the shock, as he stood there, speechless, his body oscillating back and forth. Not waiting another second, Mirage disappeared again, to reappear on Saunders's opposite side. She hit him again. He flinched even more.

Mirage transmutated one more time to rematerialize in front of him. Quickly reaching out, she firmly grabbed the knife from Saunders's belt.

In the same, determined, swift gesture, she stepped forward and planted the blade deep inside Saunders's heart. She held it there for a second. It was covered with blood as she pulled it out from his torso. Mirage took a step back, still holding the knife, to stare at the Captain.

Saunders stood there for a moment, with a bewildered look on his face. He looked at Mirage, to then place his hand on the wound in his chest, surprised as he watched his blood collecting in the palm of his hand. He looked at her again, mouth agape, his eyes wide open, eyebrows raised, as if he didn't understand he was dying.

Without a word, he felt face down, crashing to the floor. He did not move anymore. A pool of dark blood slowly spread from underneath his body. Mirage watched him for a moment, still clutching the knife. She stood there, shaking like a leaf, breathing heavily, still in shock by what just had happened.

Mirage wiped the tears that had formed in her eyes with the back of her hand. Even though she had hated him, taking a life would always be difficult for her.

A distant rumble caught her attention. As she looked outward, she noticed the lava had reached the staircase. It was time to go. Mirage looked at the Captain's body one more time. "You pig," was all she said. She put the disk in her pocket, and ran to the elevator.

Mirage waited anxiously for the elevator's doors to open. As they did, she jumped in and punched the main floor button. The elevator hummed softly as it went up.

As Mirage waited to reach the runway level, a heavy wave of nausea suddenly went over her. The cabin spun wildly, making her sway from side to side. She closed her eyes, leaning against the elevator's side. She had lost a lot of blood.

Mirage opened her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm the nausea that had taken her. She looked down at her bleeding wound for a second, took her right hand and placed it slightly above her hurt shoulder. She spread her fingers.

A thin, translucent aura seeped out of her hand, to enter the wound. As soon as she did that, her skin seemed to react to the gentle radiation; the blood flow reducing, the wound partially mending, but not completely. Mirage stopped after a few seconds, unable to go on.

_I'm not strong enough_, she thought, having lost herself in memories. _I wasn't strong enough before, why should I be now?_ Mirage didn't clearly understand why the image of her mother had appeared in her mind at that particular time. She quickly chased the thought away. The wound in her arm would not heal anymore.

A larger rumble shook the elevator shaft. Everything went black in the cabin as the elevator suddenly stopped.

"Oh, дерьмо!" Mirage uttered, waiting nervously for the emergency generators to kick in, but it quickly became apparent that they never would, the lava having probably already reached them.

Not minding the darkness, Mirage looked around for an escape hatch, but there was none. The power had completely failed now; she would have to pry herself out the elevator.

Grabbing hold of the edge of one door panel with her able arm, she forced them to open, by leaning her foot against the other side. Through the small opening she made, she could see the elevator had stopped between two floors. Mirage took a deep breath and transmutated through the crack in the door that she had made, reappearing on the higher floor. The corridor was deserted and dark except for the flashing of the red strobe light of the general alarm.

Mirage still had to climb a few more floors to reach the air strip. Not waiting a second, she ran to the end of the long corridor, reaching the emergency stairwell. Her body felt like lead as she climbed the steps one by one, her mind focusing only on the negative floor numbers moving ever so slowly back towards zero.

Almost crying for joy when she felt fresh tropical air blow gently across her face, Mirage looked ahead to see the little plane, its door open, the access ladder down. More than ever, she felt proud of her computer skills.

Mirage's senses were on high alert. She held her knife out, as she anticipated some form of opposition to manifest itself, but none did. The tarmac, like the rest of the compound, had been abandoned in haste, the men rushing out to the forest in a feeble, futile attempt to reach the safety of the sea.

She dashed towards the jet, but suddenly staggered for a few steps and collapsed to the ground, as another intense bout of vertigo got the better of her. She saw the plane's image double as her eyes were unable to focus properly. Her body weighed a ton, her limbs like rubber, useless. With the cold concrete now scraping her cheek, Mirage felt an overwhelming fear starting to grip her, mixed with rage and despair. To be so close to her goal and yet unable to go on, to _fail _like that, was unbearable.

Mirage could never accept this. Gathering all her remaining energy, clearing the tears in her eyes, she got up, focused on the jet and transmutated towards it, taking a few strides to reach the boarding ladder. As she reappeared in front of it, she grabbed hold of the rungs and climbed inside feebly, her body drained and weak. She was relieved to see the plane had no one on board, not having the strength to fight off anybody who might have wanted to oppose her anymore.

Mirage reached the cockpit. Sitting down fast, she struggled to strap herself in the pilot's seat, the heavy seatbelts hard to pass over her injured shoulder. She did that, knowing the ride out would probably be rough.

A strong vibration from the ground suddenly shook the plane, making it sway from side to side. Mirage saw in horror that the landing strip had begun to crack, as did the concrete structures covering the tarmac. Pieces of broken cement, with steel shards were falling here and there now. There wasn't much time left before the plane wouldn't be able to lift off. The whole island would disintegrate soon.

Mirage knew that the destruction of the power plant below would be the least of her problems. The real trouble would start when the lava would reach the anti-matter containment units used for testing Syndrome's weapons.

In an uncontrolled form, the meddling of matter with raw anti-matter, even in small amounts, would release enormous quantities of energy. Anyone unfortunate enough to remain in the vicinity of such an event would find themselves instantly vaporised by what could be compared to the formation of a miniature star.

Mirage did not know how much time she had left. She would have to reach the limit of the transmission blackout bubble. It was all that mattered to her.

Glancing at the controls, Mirage then flipped a switch to put them fully online. In a second, all the panel lights were lit, the plane ready for takeoff, the engines humming gently as they were idling.

Mirage slammed the throttle forward, the engines roaring to life as the little jet jumped forward. The acceleration pushed Mirage back in the seat as she hung to the control wheel as hard as she could, her injured left arm of no use to her, hanging loosely at her side, still bleeding. She looked ahead and up, keeping an eye on the now crumbling structure around her. The roof of the tarmac seemed to move in a blur, as the plane accelerated towards the exit. Mirage had the impression that the runway would never end, as it seemed to be forever stretching forward.

The plane kept gathering speed, vibrating more and more as the cracking concrete and fallen debris slowly damaged the wheels. One of the rear tires of the plane suddenly burst as it hit a piece of concrete, sending sparks flying. Mirage kept her focus on the end of the hangar, the throttle fully opened.

A burst of sunlight blinded her as the plane finally reached flight speed, just as it came out of the hangar.

Instead of going up, the jet headed towards the forest below, as it was difficult for Mirage to pilot, the control wheel having been designed to be held by both hands. Mirage's blood rushed in her veins as she saw the forest getting closer. Mastering all her strength, she raised her injured arm, ignoring the pain, forcing it to grab the control wheel to pull back as hard as she could, to try to level the plane. It flew closer to the trees, clipping some of their branches, the small craft shaking as it hit them.

The trajectory of the jet began to correct. Mirage had already reached the edge of the forest, passing over the coral sand beaches, flying low over the water now. The plane flew barely above the surface of the waves. It could not go any lower.

Mirage's heart pounded in her chest as she felt that the plane finally obeyed her. It now started to climb steadily, accelerating, every control indicating normal activity.

The Manta-Plane had a very efficient design; full stealth mode and a large autonomy made it possible for the craft to cross the Pacific twice before having to refuel, virtually undetectable by radar. It was fast, easily able to achieve Mach 2, with a flight ceiling as high as U2 spy planes. Most important to her now, an advanced auto-pilot system enabled the plane to make unsupervised take-offs and landings. Mirage pushed the little plane to its limit.

She had not plotted a specific course to take, in her haste to leave. Her compass showed a heading of North, North West.

Mirage had her data disk ready now, inserted in its drive, as she kept an eye on the radar screen. On it, a circular yellow line indicated the perimeter of the blackout bubble. She would be reaching it any second now.

The island of Nomanisan was fundamentally a still active volcano that had pushed itself upward, like most islands in the Pacific, to reach the ocean's surface. Over the centuries, its surface would cool down and stabilize, covering itself with vegetation and life, to become a tropical paradise. But the illusion of peace and beauty that one could see had a fragile shell though. The molten core deep below would always want to liberate itself from the confines of the earth, pushing upward continually, waiting for an opportunity, like any weakness the upper crust would present.

The chain of events Mirage started would help it do just that.

The lava had filled the generator room halfway now, slowly melting away all the structures it touched. Earlier, as she controlled the Omnidroid, Mirage had avoided damaging a steel enclosed area, near the generators. It contained all of Syndrome's anti-matter supplies, sealed off from the rest of the world by an autonomous force field. The lava now had reached the enclosure, gnawing at it relentlessly. Even the strongest steel could not resist this type of attack without some form of cooling. The force field would fall anytime soon.

That moment had arrived. In a microsecond, matter united with anti-matter. The result, a massive amount of pure energy, liberated itself at the speed of light, engulfing, disintegrating everything in its path.

In an instant, the island of Nomanisan had ceased to exist.

Mirage had been staring at the radar screen almost continuously. She understood what had happened as the orange line of the blackout bubble suddenly faded from the screen. The chain reaction she anticipated had occurred, destroying the communications jamming systems in the process.

Mirage had been waiting for the moment when she would cross the limit of the blackout bubble, or when it would fail, whatever coming first. Pressing a button, the plane's powerful transmitter came to life, and instantly relayed the data to one of the multitude of satellites that orbited silently above.

An audible beep indicated the upload had been completed. Soon, the data would be downloaded on the other side of the world, analysed, and quickly, the necessary actions undertaken.

Mirage sighed in relief. She had completed her mission.

The automated pilot's metallic voice suddenly resonated inside the cockpit, warning of an impending collision threat. Mirage's grip on to the control wheel tightened as she looked to the horizon, bracing herself, knowing too well what was coming.

Mirage looked again at the radar. The shockwave created by the destruction of the island was visible on the screen as a thick, white circular line that moved quickly, much faster than the plane could fly.

It would reach the jet very soon.


	8. REDEMPTION

**CHAPTER EIGHT: REDEMPTION**

The Delta-Four civil weather satellite moved along its geostationary orbit, following the rotation of the earth, to record the daily data on the wind and clouds patterns of the South Eastern Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful day, as any other, nothing out of the ordinary happening, as only a few wisps of clouds were visible against the deep blue of the ocean. The satellite, as it always did, sent its usual stream of information to the relay station below in New Zealand.

The Weather Bureau operators were stunned to see that the latest picture, downloaded a second ago, showed an intense flash of light originating from a small island in the Pacific, located underneath the Equator, west of Peru. At the same time, seismographs around the world recorded the tremors of a large earthquake, with its epicenter located on the island of Nomanisan, latitude 19° 05 South, longitude 112° 20 West.

The flash of light lasted a few seconds. The pictures also revealed that a ring made of compressed gases, the obvious signs the shockwave of an important explosion, shot outward, moving many times the speed of sound to cross hundreds of kilometres before disappearing.

The light faded as abruptly as it had appeared. News agencies around the world now started picking up on a story in which preliminary data gathered told about the possible eradication of an entire island of the South Pacific. No reports on casualties were yet available.

Henri Lebel had difficulty keeping awake as he faced his computer screen. He silently cursed the hierarchy who had forced him to be on the assignment, as it had been a waiting game, boring and endless like most surveillance work, as nothing significant had happened for months now.

It took him a second to react to the fact that his computer screen suddenly came to life. The communication protocol had activated, the terminal in front of him telling him something large had started downloading.

Lebel swore as he spilled some coffee on his pants, jumping forward to better look at his computer screen. When he knew he hadn't been dreaming, he reached for the phone.

"This is Lebel. Get me Dicker. I've got something here."

Lebel got up and started yelling in the handset, as the person on the other side of the line told him the Director was on the phone and could not be reached for the moment.

Lebel swore again and ran to the printer, almost ripping the page as it came out of the machine. He dashed off in the corridor.

He was gasping for air when he reached the office of Richard Dicker, Head of the American Division of Interpol, here, in Lyon. He burst into the reception.

"I need to see Dicker now," he said to the woman behind the desk.

The secretary looked surprised and annoyed. "Mr Dicker is on the phone right now, he won't be disturbed. You will have to wait," she said, rather dryly.

Lebel stared at her. Ignoring her, he went to the door and into Dicker's office, the woman getting up behind him and now objecting very vocally.

Dicker looked up, and when he recognized Lebel, waved his hand. The secretary grunted her disapproval as she closed the door behind them.

Lebel held up the piece of paper. "It's her, Sir. She did it."

Dicker hung up the phone. Lebel went on. "It's Mirage, huh, I mean, agent Moresso… She did it, we've got the data." Lebel leaned on Dicker's desk, giving him the piece of paper. He had excitement in his voice. "Sir, this data is good for twelve hours only. This is _it,_ Sir, now is the time. If we wait, we are going to lose them again."

Dicker looked at him. "Send the data out, Lebel," he said calmly.

"Yes, Sir," said the agent, as he ran out of the office.

Dicker took the phone and dialled an internal number. "This is Dicker. Launch Operation Harvest." He hung up and stared out the window.

Such were modern times. Because of technology, distances and time differences did not matter anymore, as the earth truly had become a global village.

Simultaneously, events happened, discreet, secret even, but none the less crucial.

Phone calls were made, people mobilized. Local authorities moved in. Warrants for arrests were issued, safe houses raided in the wee hours of the morning, computers seized, hazardous material and weapons collected. Assets in numbered bank accounts were frozen. In distant and deserted locations, stealth bombers, precise and economical in their targeting, destroyed hidden camps that had up to now escaped the ever watchful eyes of satellites. Some people died when they resisted as they were confronted by the authorities, to become casualties in a war that they had chosen to take part of.

Within hours, the Sweep had ended.

Mirage saw on the radar screen that the shockwave would reach her anytime now. Her mind raced as she thought of what she could do. In a second, she made her decision. Reaching down near the throttle control, she flipped open the protective cover of a small switch, put her finger underneath it and flipped it up.

The engine booster switch Mirage had just activated would give the plane a few seconds of extra energy, to push itself beyond what it could normally achieve in terms of velocity.

As the engines roared even louder, the burst of power threw Mirage back in her seat. She pulled back on the control wheel, the plane lifting up, heading ever higher in a steep angle, almost sixty degrees to the vertical.

Mirage wanted to reach the upper edge of the stratosphere, the theoretical ceiling of the plane, where the thinning atmosphere would help in making the approaching shockwave less destructive. As she struggled to keep the aircraft in control, the automated warning system kept blaring out with the same neutral, artificial voice, about the imminent collision.

The jet had reached fifty thousand meters when the shockwave hit it.

Mirage instinctively closed her eyes as the shock went through the airplane, the air inside the cockpit suddenly compressing, to sound like a large detonation in her ears that hurt her eardrums. She felt the plane shake and its steel structure twist upon itself as the energy from the explosion crossed through the metal of the airframe. A crack appeared in the windshield, left of her. The energy blast tossed the plane around like a leaf in the wind, totally disorienting her, the artificial horizon spinning wildly in all directions, Mirage not knowing the difference between ground and sky anymore. She had lost control of the plane.

Mirage struggled to regain control, but the G forces prevented her from doing so, as they shook her like a rag doll, flinging her head and limbs violently about. All the controls suddenly turned off for a second, to light up again, every alarm sounding out simultaneously, in a sinister cacophony.

Mirage blacked out, as the G forces were too strong.

The brute force of the blast had obviously strained the plane, but the little jet hanged on. The on board computer, sensing the pilot had lost all control of the aircraft in what had become a critical flight pattern, kicked in, and much faster and precisely than anyone could do so, took control in less than a microsecond. The plane eased out of its uncontrolled spins gracefully and stabilized. It now flew evenly.

It took a few second for Mirage to realize what had happened as she regained consciousness. Getting her bearings, she looked at the radar.

The shockwave had passed. The plane flew normally, as she noticed the autopilot had activated. Mirage saw the crack in the windshield, making her wonder if it would hold until she landed.

Without warning, the engines shut down. Silence now filled the cabin. As the plane had lost power, it had now started to descend. Mirage felt weightless at that moment, her long hair floating up freely, only the seatbelts keeping her in her seat.

Mirage instinctively looked at the controls as the engines had stopped, but the horizon managed to catch her attention again. Her eyes opened wide, as what she saw outside the windshield took her breath away.

Mirage had reached the very limit of the stratosphere. The sky, normally pale, had turned to the darkest shade of navy blue. Stars shined everywhere above her. Below, the earth, silent and majestic, unfurled from one end of the horizon to the other, the curve of its circumference now clearly visible. Kilometers below her, clouds drifted above the waters of the Pacific that shimmered in the bright sun.

The sound of the air against the fuselage told her she was accelerating. Mirage felt the pressure against her ears augment as the plane got lower. The engines had turned on again, as sufficient air flowed through them now. In a minute, it had stabilized at its cruising altitude of twenty thousand meters, much higher than any commercial aircraft, safely avoiding them as the small jet would be dangerously undetectable by their radar. The plane flew steady now.

Mirage felt her body weigh a ton again, as the adrenalin that had kept her alert finally had drained away. She leaned over, slowly lifting her right arm to reach for the control panel, struggling as she flipped switches and tried to set dials. It took her about a minute to program the Complete Itinerary Autopilot. The plane, fully autonomous now, headed towards the destination Mirage had entered.

_Time to mend this wound now_, Mirage thought. She slowly unbuckled her seatbelts, helping her injured arm out with her right hand. She got up, swayed a bit, but held herself up by leaning on the headrest of the seat.

_There is a first aid kit in the back, _Mirage said to herself, stepping out of the cockpit ever so slowly, as she could barely walk.

Midway in the cabin, Mirage's knees suddenly buckled, and she silently collapsed to the floor. She did not get up again.

Tourists considered the island of Bora Bora as a prime tropical destination. Its proximity to the equator helped to make its seclusion and breathtaking beauty available year round, sunshine and a cool breeze on an average of three hundred sixty days a year, as weather patterns stabilized in the area.

Martin, one of the monitors on duty at the popular Club Med of the island, was surprised as he saw a small black jet land, a rear tire screeching and sparks flying, on the private airstrip owned by the club. He found it odd, for no planes ever landed there except on Sundays when the regular change of tourists happened.

As he walked up to the plane, he scrutinized it briefly. It had sustained some minor damage, as the windshield showed a crack. He noticed that a blown rear tire hadn't stopped the aircraft from making a relatively smooth landing.

The door of the plane had opened, and a ladder had unfurled. The monitor stood there, waiting for someone to come out but no one did. Curious, he climbed aboard. Martin was shocked to see that the aircraft was empty, except for this most unusual looking young woman, obviously injured, motionless on the floor.

Time ceases to exist for the unconscious mind. Mirage did not know if she had actually regained consciousness yet or that she dreamt still.

Darkness enveloped her as her eyes were closed. Her body felt numb, but slowly, it seemed to her as if she was resurfacing, her senses progressively coming back. Her ears had now filled with a regular thumping sound, continuous and deep. Vibrations slowly shook her body. Fresh air flowed on her face, salty and warm, perfumed as only the sea air could be.

She heard voices.

Two men were talking loud against the wind in a conversation about someone. Mirage sensed it was about her.

"We'll be arriving in five minutes. How is she doing Corporal?" one voice said.

"Her vitals are stable, Sir. It's amazing how fast she's recovering," the other voice answered.

"Yes, she is a Healer, obviously. I've heard about them," the first voice said. "Pretty practical super power... I've never met a Super before. Have you, Corporal?"

"No Sir," the Corporal answered. "But anyway, Super or not, she's hot! Wonder if she has a boyfriend?"

The first voice sounded annoyed. "Hold your hormones, Corporal. Just keep an eye on that I.V. And no, Corporal, she does not need mouth to mouth resuscitation…"

"Yes Sir," the Corporal said, with little enthusiasm.

He suddenly spoke again. "Sir, I think she's waking up… Miss? Miss? Can you hear me?"

Mirage had opened her eyes. She had difficulty focusing on her surroundings. Feebly turning her head on one side, she realized she lay on a stretcher, her injured arm having been taken care of, as it had been bandaged. A man in military garb held an I.V. bag above her. As he saw she had regained consciousness, he leaned close to her face to talk to her.

"Miss?" he said again, talking loud to be heard. "I'm Corporal Lance Johnson, United States Army. You've been found injured on a plane on the island of Bora Bora. You've been out for a couple of hours. You are on a Navy helicopter; we are taking you to the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Omaha. We were doing exercises in the area, we'll be there soon. Just relax, you are going to be fine."

Mirage could focus better now. She saw the young man standing by her side looking at her with a reassuring smile.

"Hey, soldier," Mirage said, in a faint voice. The Corporal leaned closer to her as he could barely hear her feeble voice.

"What kind of weather do you think we'll be having today?" she asked him, as she closed her eyes again.

The corporal looked at the horizon. "Well, judging by the sunrise I'm seeing, it's going to be a beautiful day... And by the way, just call me Lance."

Mirage smiled, her eyes still closed.

For the first time in as long as she could remember, Mirage Moresso felt at peace.

A couple of weeks had passed now, since Dicker had ordered the Sweep. He called up to his office agents Henri Lebel and Lucie De Vrees, both from Interpol's French branch. De Vrees closed the door behind her as she came in.

"Sorry I didn't have the time to brief you earlier on the outcome of Operation Harvest," Dicker said to the agents sitting in front of his desk. "Well, there is not much more to say, than that the operation has been very successful. Organized crime has taken a major blow, and will be affected for years to come, here and around the world." He put his hands together. "I brought you here because I wanted to ask you both if you had any news on the whereabouts of agent Moresso?"

De Vrees answered. "She's Italy right now, Sir. Where exactly, we don't know."

"Speaking of Moresso, Sir," De Vrees added, "I'd like to mention something interesting." Dicker and Lebel listened on. "Intelligence brought the numbers back after analysis and it seems that there were significant movements of funds at the time she was on the island." De Vrees leaned forward. "We can't locate a lot of the money that moved. That is the problem. It seems that they had it in their bank accounts one day, but suddenly, it's electronically transferred, and," De Vrees waved with her hands. "It disappears. We know this because of the bank records we've seized."

De Vrees frowned. "We should normally know where it is sent. But we have no idea where the money went, and most important, who took it."

Dicker and Lebel seemed very interested now. "Sir," de Vrees added, "I don't have the figures to prove it, but I think Moresso is behind this. I think we should do something about that."

Dicker thought for a moment. "Thank you Lucie, but we were aware of that; we had been suspicious for a while, we also had an eye on it too." De Vrees looked surprised as he said that. "But, you are right though," he added. "We are not able to prove she took the money. But one thing we do know is that the money was taken away from our enemies, and that is a good thing for us."

The director waved his hand. "The amount is irrelevant. What really counts is the fact that these criminals have lost its use."

Dicker looked at both agents from above his glasses. "Mirage Moresso is a very good agent. A lot of innocent lives were saved because of her action and for that, we have to be thankful. I'm sure she probably risked her own life many times in the process," he added. "To be brief, it's not worth enough for us to go after her. And you know, having the particular qualities that she has, I wouldn't want her to turn against us."

Lucie de Vrees objected. "But, Sir, I really think we should follow up on this," she said.

Dicker spoke again. "Look, as far as I'm concerned, Mirage never existed in the first place." He stared at them. "You know what I mean by that. We were in a position where we could never have helped her if she had been in trouble. She did a good job, so let's give her a break."

Dicker sighed. "That she gets away with this, I'm actually happy for her. And remember, we can't prove a thing, we have nothing." He looked at his aides. "Mirage is working for us for free, she is a great asset. Let us keep it this way. Just consider the case closed."

He added. "We live in an imperfect world. Some people win, some people lose, and some things are never settled."

Lebel got up and left the office. De Vrees had remained though, still thinking. She nodded, got up and turned to the exit.

Dicker stopped her, asking her one more question. "By the way, I forgot to ask, does anyone know more about the amount that's in question?"

De Vrees looked at him." Well, let me put it this way. If she did do it, she is very rich woman now."

"According to what the data tells us," De Vrees said, "Mirage Moresso should be worth about two hundred and fifty million Euros."

Dicker raised an eyebrow, staring blankly at his assistant. He thought for a moment. "Thank you, Lucie," he finally said. "That will be all." He went back to his work.

The news of the destruction of the island had come and gone from the papers. Months had passed and an uneventful summer season drew to an end.

Mid-September was always a busy month in northern Italy, as the sun-ripened grapes and olives were now harvested. And there, in the country side, even amidst all this activity, time still managed to slow down, to grind to a halt mysteriously as the rhythm of life had adjusted to its majestic surroundings. In the afternoon, as the workers paused for their daily break, only the wind stirred the trees, and the ringing of a lone bell of a distant church, the only sound heard. Life felt good there, as the days were warm, and the nights cool.

Luigi raked the leaves at a leisurely pace in front of the house of his small farm. Like most land owners in Tuscany, Luigi made a few extra Euros per year by offering hospitality for any tourist that might be visiting the area.

Luigi had an eye and an ear for fine things. He recognized, from the sound of the sports car he heard in the distance coming his way that another rich patron would probably be driving to him, seeking shelter for the end of the afternoon had arrived.

Luigi smiled faintly as the silver grey BMW Z4 3.0i convertible two-seater drove up on the alley to him. The driver, unaccompanied, turned off the powerful six cylinder fuel injected engine, and stepped out of the car. Luigi crossed his hands over the top of his rake as he eyed the stranger that now walked towards him.

"Buongiorno Signore**,"** Mirage said to him, in near perfect Italian.

"Good day, miss," Luigi answered.

Mirage stood there as she looked around. The small farm house was inviting, set on top of a hill that overlooked fields of vines that undulated endlessly to the horizon. The air, perfumed and sweet, was warm and still as the wind had died.

Luigi thought he must have had been blessed with good fortune to have such a distinguished visitor

Mirage stood tall in front of him. She wore a short sleeved pale grey tailleur of the finest silk. Her knee high skirt, fitting, revealed the sensuous curve of her thighs. Sandals of delicate grey leather, laced up to her ankles, as favoured by Italian women, complimented the graceful lines of her legs. The Maison Chanel had truly outdone itself this autumn season.

Mirage had very little jewellery; only a thin row of pearls on her neck, and a large Swiss watch with a bracelet of fine leather, hanging on her left hand.

Luigi knew the woman in front of him had also a rebellious side to her that shone through all the classic touches, as he saw her intense emerald green eyes focus on him.

Through strands of wild, pure white hair, she looked at him, her gaze up above small oval sunglasses, tinted purple, which had a minuscule peace symbol etched on the side of its silver-rimmed branches, barely visible.

Luigi was a curious man. He always wanted to know who his potential guests where, even more when they were as stunning as she was, not minding the fact she traveled alone.

He spoke to her in Italian. "Your accent, Miss, I can't seem to place it… Are you from Rome?"

Mirage smiled shyly and looked at the ground. "No," she said. "Actually, I'm not Italian." She looked up at him. "I've just been around, that's all," she said hesitantly.

Luigi jumped on the occasion to be back in business. "Are you looking for a place to stay for the evening? You're in luck, I just had a cancellation." Luigi told her the truth, but he just bent it a bit, hoping it would help her make a quicker decision.

"At this time of year, and in this late hour, you will have difficulty finding a place to stay for the night," Luigi said, putting his rake aside. "Please Miss, take a break from your journey, I have a wonderful room available for you, and if you are hungry, dinner will be served at eight. I will put out my finest reserve on your table."

Mirage smiled to him warmly. There would be no more driving today. She accepted the offer. "That would be delightful, thank you."

Luigi beamed with joy. "Wonderful. I'll take your luggage up to your room." He turned around to face her. "Miss, I am Luigi Tornatorre. Welcome to my farm. And you are?"

"Moresso, Mirage Moresso," she told him, gently.

Luigi frowned a bit. "Moresso?" He thought for a moment. Luigi hesitated, as he did not want to sound intrusive, but as he looked at her, her face seemed familiar, even though he had never seen her before.

He spoke calmly. "There was a Moresso mentioned in the papers, not a couple of days ago… I read the article quickly. It mentioned a scientist, or a physicist, or something like that." Luigi waved his hand. "Oh, I don't know. I'm just a farmer, but it was something about that man making a major breakthrough in some field of science."

Luigi looked at her with concerned eyes. "Something that could change the world, the paper said."

Luigi could not help himself as he saw Mirage's expression change.

"From his picture, you look like you could be related," Luigi asked her, smiling warmly. "Could you be, perhaps…?" He hesitated, "a beautiful daughter, if I may be so bold?"

Mirage nodded.

Luigi was thrilled. "Well, come along my dear, I will serve you a glass of my finest wine, and if I say so myself, one of the finest in Tuscany."

"Thank you very much," Mirage said, as she followed him inside.

"You must be very proud of your father, Miss Moresso," Luigi asked her.

"Yes, yes... Very proud." Mirage did not look at him when she said that

Mirage left after lunch the next day. The small roads, sinuous through the mountains and valleys, were a pleasure to drive on. Mirage loved the sensation of having the wind blow in her hair as she drove.

Even though she concentrated on the road ahead, her mind had drifted elsewhere.

Mirage suddenly pulled over the side of the road and turned off the engine. Reaching inside her purse, she took out her cellular phone.

Director Dicker's phone rang in his Lyon office. "Dicker here," he said.

"Hello, Director Dicker," Mirage said, in a quiet and calm voice.

"Agent Moresso," Dicker answered. "I'm glad to finally speak to you. We hadn't since the destruction of the island, and I wondered if we would ever again. Our sources say you are in Italy. Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yes, sir," she said. "It's beautiful here. I'll go as far as to say I'm in Tuscany right now."

Dicker paused for a moment. "Mirage, how are you? Is everything ok?" he asked her in a concerned voice.

"Everything is fine sir," Mirage told him. "I'm doing very well… Nomanisan, Sir, was difficult, but let me put it this way, very good to me also."

Dicker spoke to her, calmly. "The authorities are in debt to you for what you've done, Mirage. We are very grateful."

"Thank you Sir, Mirage said.

"But I'm asking you," Dicker added, "is there anything you would like to say to me?"

Mirage didn't answer immediately. She had an empty expression on her face as she reminisced.

"I did the right thing, Sir." Mirage frowned as she said that, her gaze hard. "I did what I had to do to survive, Sir."

They had both paused for a second, as they seemed to know what would be coming, but not knowing how to say it.

"What are your plans for the future, Mirage?" Dicker finally asked her, breaking the silence.

Mirage answered nonchalantly. "For the moment, I still want to recuperate and travel a bit." She cut him off before he could speak again. "I know what you're thinking, Sir. To tell you the truth, I'm in a situation right now where I don't have to work anymore if it pleases me."

"You cannot count on anyone but yourself, Sir... I learned that lesson a long, long time ago," she added.

"Well, Mirage, I'm glad to hear your point of view," Dicker said. "But are things so simple, that you would never consider working for us again?"

He paused. "_Wouldn't you miss i_t, Mirage?"

Mirage did not speak for a second. "Maybe," she finally said.

Her tone hardened. "Let me make a deal with you, Director Dicker. If you tell me something will be done about the situation of the Supers, to make them legitimate again, then you will have my full cooperation. I am a Super, Sir, and I want things to change."

Dicker was surprised to hear her talk this way, never having heard her refer to herself like that before.

"Well, Mirage, all I can say is that things are being done right now, as we speak. But they might take time to fall in place. I can't promise you anything. You will have to be patient, Mirage."

Dicker sensed the conversation would end soon. "Look," he said, "take your time, relax, enjoy yourself, you've earned it, but please, Mirage, consider my offer."

Mirage sounded inquisitive. "Oh, it sounds like you might already have something for me. Do you?"

Dicker sounded pleased. "We have some problems in North Korea that would benefit from your special touch, Agent Moresso… You wouldn't work alone, though."

"Keep going, Sir," she said.

"Mr Incredible has shown great interest in that mission," Dicker told her.

Mirage smiled. "I could work with him again, certainly," she said. "It's his wife I would have difficulty with. I could say, we never met eye to eye…"

"Well, the ball is in your court, Mirage. Think about it, and call me back."

"I will, Sir," she said as she hung up, unsure if she meant it or not.

Mirage put her phone away and drove off. She would accept the mission in no doubt, but not any time soon, as it was time for her to rest. Only when ready, would she take action.

Mirage smiled as she stepped on the accelerator, the warm wind blowing in her hair again. She felt free now. Coming upon the top of a hill, she saw the light of the late summer sun illuminate the valley below.

**THE END OF ESCAPE FROM NOMANISAN**

**MIRAGE WILL RETURN IN HER NEXT ADVENTURE**

**COUNTDOWN TO ETERNITY**


	9. NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR

**AUTHOR'S NOTES**

**First things first: A very sincere and grateful thank you to everyone who took the time to review my story. It is always a joy to read your comments. Some of you have put me into your C2 communities or author or story list of favourites and that is a great honour. It is very touching.**

**So, a very special thanks to: griffin-queen-of-silver-skies, NightMage, Blackfire 18, Wrongful Vanity, Syndrome'sGirlXOXO, Damienne, pitbulllady, PriestessLennoue, Xaviere Jade and Morphimal! **

She had me at, "Hello, Mr. Incredible…"

What else can I say? LOL!

CapitaineCartoon says, "Bonjour tout le monde! Vous allez bien?"

My name is CapitaineCartoon. As this is the Internet, I will only go as far as to say that I am an adult, that I am French Canadian, based in the cool city of Montréal, Québec. English is not my mother tongue, thus explaining the "e" in CapitaineCartoon and the occasional strange conjugation or phrase structure that you might have stumbled upon in the story. I hope you will have forgiven me by now.

Before I go on, I feel I must stress the fact that I am not a writer, as I always felt powerless with words, both in English or French. Powerless to a point where the art forms in which I have chosen to express myself on a more regular basis, are basically empty of words. I am a jazz guitar player, and a reborn illustrator. Reborn in the sense, that The Incredibles has rekindled my love of drawing.

CapitaineCartoon on writing fiction for the first time:

What a wonderful experience writing this story was! I did not expect the effect it would have on me. I certainly did not expect the huge amount of time it took me to write it. (Early December '04 to mid June '05, every single spare moment.) It seems that it reached into me, grabbing something untapped before. It has powered my creative juice again, as I felt, but like I always do in November, empty and flat. Winter in Montreal is very difficult, it brings you down.

CapitaineCartoon on motives and plot ideas:

The fundamental idea behind writing this story is that, loving this movie, and the character that is Mirage, I couldn't help myself thinking about what motivated her: My whole story is based on the principle of "Innocent until proven guilty."

This is how I felt regarding Mirage's actions in the movie. She could not have been truly evil. If she would have been, she would have never turned. The fact that she drew a line she would not cross, risking her life by acting the way she did, meant to me that there had to be something else.

The fact that she was totally underwritten also added to my motivation. It is clear, we know nothing about her, and that paved the way to wide spread speculation about her character, enabling us to create endless possibilities, like as I saw on the Internet that she might have been a Super herself.

As I discovered I knew I had to write something. I felt, after reading the first few stories that were posted, except in certain notable cases, that Mirage had been given the short end of the stick.

So I set myself to compensate for that.

I wanted "my" Mirage to come out triumphant and transformed from her ordeal. So, there she is. My Mirage is a Goddess: she is beautiful, young, strong, determined, self-reliant, courageous, wise, and focused. She is willing to sacrifice herself for the common good. But she is not perfect, she has issues. She is not a Saint: she has done some questionable things, but she had to, as she had to survive.

CapitaineCartoon on sequels:

As her character grew as I wrote the story, I realized I needed to follow up on some things. So, if you are still reading this, then you will be interested in knowing that I am developing the second and last story on her. After that, I will go back to my own things, and sadly, let Mirage go as she does not belong to me, unless Brad Bird reads my story and contacts me. (Hoping)

Regarding this next story, it will contain my favourite science fiction themes: time and space travel, doomsday devices, parent-children relationships, genetic engineering, totalitarian regimes and societies, the injustices and horrors of war, and the suffering one feels when you become who you are destined to be.

And, as Mirage is a young woman, perhaps sparks will fly between her and that young dashing Super who has been assigned to protect her against her will. (Spoiler alert! Oops! I should have put this in front!)

CapitaineCartoon on favourite Mirage moments from the movie:

I got the DVD on the very first day it was available. It was a joy to finally be able to slow down the action, to stretch a moment that up to now had only been fleeting on the screen. And then, even more, to freeze-frame the action, on an instant, an in-between shot even, but none the less totally delectable.

My favourite Mirage moments are: 

Any shot that shows Mirage's left side. The top contenders: When Syndrome and Mirage have their argument, and when Mr. Incredible tries to get in the computer room by forcing his way in with the Easter Island statue. When Mirage turns to look behind her, there is a frame in there that is just perfect.

Of course, there is the Dinner scene. It hurts. Trust me, it does.

"How does it compare?" Whoa, damn. (Sweating)

CapitaineCartoon with technical tidbits:

My website will be up soon. I will update my story as I want to rewrite some parts of the first chapters to make them better. I've discovered that some of my writing seems to be inspired by the William Shatner School of acting, where… everything… slows down… And suddenly! Something… _happens_!... (I'm laughing at this but maybe I shouldn't)

Once I'm pleased with the text, and that I have succeeded in hunting down typos, I will post up the URL so that you will be able to look at the drawings I've made for the story. I hope you will enjoy them.

CapitaineCartoon on hunting down typos and writing better:

I discovered, while in chapter five, that writing a quick draft of the complete chapter, then printing it, and working from the printed page, helped greatly in making the text better, but was incredibly useful also when it came to spot errors of all kinds like typos, missing words and so on. It is much easier to do it this way than on the screen.

CapitaineCartoon on listening to music while drinking coffee and writing:

When I drink too much coffee, weird things start to happen: I'll listen to music, and after a while, some pieces that I listen to, will want to impose certain images.

Below are listed the principal tunes that inspired the story you have read. It is important to notice that it is not the lyric content that is most crucial element, but more the atmosphere that the tune has created, that prevails.

These are the most outstanding ones, and the scenes and chapters that they have inspired.

**Beck – Sea change:** The tune **_Round the Bend,_** used in chapter four when Mirage is at the cottage.

I listened to a lot of heavy stuff, some from the past, some from the present.

**Metallica – Frantic:** Used in chapter six as Mirage confronts the Omnidroid.

**Rammstein – Sonne**: I love the dramatic sound that they have. Mirage and Saunders are fighting, she is wounded, and there is lava everywhere. In fact, the whole album, **Mutter **is fabulous, dark and tense. (I have yet to translate the lyrics)

When Mirage is in Tuscany, I heard **One** by **U2**. When she drives out into the sun, I heard** Southside** by **Moby**.

**Rammstein** actually inspired me for the next story. The tune **Moskau **from the album **Reise, reise** gives me visions of an epic battle scene, and the tune **Amour**, an intense love scene between Mirage and her boyfriend to be. (Oh, no! A spoiler!)

From the past, **Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon**, the tune **Breathe in the air and Eclipse.** Eclipse is very dramatic, the lyrics seem to fit her very well.

**Led Zeppelin**, the tune **Ten years gone**. Chapter five, when Mirage walks in the forest, going back towards the compound. A psychedelic moment, strange and mysterious.

CapitaineCartoon is saying thank you!

I hope you had as much pleasure in reading this story as I had I writing it.So, once again, thank you for being here. This is CapitaineCartoon, and I bow to you respectfully. I will see you in the next story, around November 2005. Check the present story from time to time for updates, my web site will be available soon.

Special thanks to the people of for making this possible.


End file.
